National park authority seeks costs from developer as Lyndhurst housing plan dropped
THE developer whose bid to build 90 homes on the former Lyndhurst Park Hotel was thrown out by the national park authority has dropped its challenge without explanation.
Pegasus Life has suddenly abandoned its appeal with just over a month to go until the public inquiry scheduled for 29th January over the scheme for 75 retirement flats and 15 affordable homes.
As reported in the A&T, the design was thrown out by the NPA in December 2017 amid objections by about 800 residents. It followed an earlier rejection of a bid for 74 apartments and a dozen holiday homes.
This week no one from Pegasus was available to answer whether a new plan would be drawn up or the site put up for sale.
Pegasus’s surrender sparked a warning from the national park authority that it would seek to recover costs from the company for the wasted time and effort getting ready for the planning appeal.
Steve Avery, NPA executive director of strategy and planning, said: “No reasons have been given as to why Pegasus Life decided to withdraw its appeal at such a late stage.
“This has obviously incurred a lot of unnecessary time and expense for the authority in preparing for a significant public inquiry which Pegasus Life asked for and was due to open in only a few weeks.
“We will be looking to recover our costs in full from Pegasus Life for the appeal work.”
Mr Avery added that the company had also not revealed to the NPA what its intentions now were for the former hotel, which closed in 2014.
Key to the future of the site is the NPA’s draft Local Plan, which sets out development policy in the park until 2036 for about 800 homes. The document is currently being considered by planning inspectors before it can be formally adopted.
The Lyndhurst Park Hotel site has been allocated for 50 dwellings, including tourism and residential, alongside conserving “heritage assets” of the current run-down building, parts of which date back to about 1810.
Mr Avery added: “We are looking forward to more appropriate and less intensive proposals being put forward for the site which are more in line with the policies set out in our emerging draft Local Plan.”
As reported in the A&T, at last month’s public examination into the Local Plan at Lymington Town Hall, Pegasus’s representative Alex Bulloch said it had “no aspirations” for tourism there. “We want to bring it forward as soon as possible,” he stated.
Winchester-based Pegasus was established in 2012 by Oaktree Capital Management, a substantial American private equity house.
The original Glasshayes House dates back to about 1810, with the design of parts of the later extensions linked to Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
It was bought for a reported £5m by Pegasus and has since fallen into disrepair, with attacks by vandals prompting hoardings to be erected.
One woman commented about the ongoing situation on Facebook: “It is a shame really. Lyndhurst is the capital of the new forest but as you drive into it all you see is that eyesore. It is a disgrace. Something needs to be done about it.”
