Crest Nicholson at Woodmancote - a disgraceful mess, built with no considerationfor its residents or the surrounding neighbourhood. Greedy Developers at their worst!


Planning Duplicity allows the Pathway Application through. Click here for details. It is to be hoped that Crest Nicholson will comply with the conditions!

 

Crest Nicholson at Woodmancote

Sir Tom Hunter - Master of Aquisition & Largesse. Sir Tom Hunter founded West Coast Capital (West Coast), the private equity partnership, in March 2001 and subsequently has concluded in excess of £4 billion of West Coast led deals. Principally investing in retail, property and leisure the private equity firm takes a proactive role in the identification, investment and management of its target deals, classically known as adventure capitalism. As a guiding principal West Coast seeks to target investment in businesses with strong management teams As seen on ITV Local, Sir Tom Hunter's aquisition, hard nosed national builder, Crest Nicholson Plc have angered local residents in a Cotswold village in Gloucestershire. Crest Nicholson are completing the building project in Woodmancote , near Cheltenham in Gloucestershire. Crest Nicholson seem rarely away from controversy and discontent, and this WEB site has been created to publicise what is seen by many members of the Woodmancote community as its detrimental impact on the appearance of the village by the Crest Nicholson development, and on day to day village life.

This WEB Site plans to explore the wider issues resulting from the head long pursuit by national developers, and now apparently supported by Tewkesbury Borough Council in Gloucestershire, to maximise the return on land investment by cramming multi story houses into every available plot of suburban or semi rural land, flood plain or not.

The Bushcombe Lane Eyesore! Part of the new development adjacent to Bushcombe Lane. Note the height of the houses relative to the lane - 2.5 metres above, when 1 metre would have been appropriate. The edge of the site required shoring up with log roll to prevent earth subsidence. None of this was made clear in the plans presented by Tewkesbury Borough Council for public comment. The Bushombe Lane Boundary has now been secured with cheap willow panel fencing that look so unsightly. It provides no privacy for the occupants of the houses or for the properties in Bushcombe Lane. There have been many contentious issues during the Crest Nicholson development of the Woodmancote site, but none has caused more universal condemnation than the eyesore that has been created where the building work crashes into Bushcombe Lane. The unnecessarily high profile of the Crest Nicholson houses, their closeness to the Lane look ugly and totally out of keeping with the rest of the housing in the lane. The beautiful views of Nottingham Hill have been lost forever.

This, together with the introduction of an ill conceived and unsafe Pedestrian Access have turned a beautiful semi rural setting into a disgraceful mess. The developers, Crest Nicholson, their Architects, Barton Willmore who are, surprisingly, members of the Royal Institute of British Architecture, have stolidly refused to enter into any sort of dialogue or communication with the local residents.

Eventually local media interest (What the Papers Say) forced a response from Crest Nicholson, the developers, but with no remedial action.

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---------------------Site last updated on 18th November 2008 -------------------------