Among those present at the meeting were district councillors Nigel Peace and Nathan Bale, representatives from Bude Golf Club, Leader of Cornwall County Council, David Whalley and ex-trustee of Bude Football Club Wilf Keat.
Chairing the meeting, Roger Orchard explained that there were two main issues; namely the proposed new access road and the diversion of Bude Junior and Infant schools access road. He went on to summarise the main reasons why so many residents strongly opposed the plans.
Colin Benney from CCC and a representative from Seasons Holidays Plc had been invited, but declined to attend the meeting. However, Mr Benney and Seasons issued statements which were read out at the meeting.
One key issue is that Seasons need to purchase, or obtain access rights, across a strip of Bude Football Club land before they can sign an option agreement with CCC.
It is believed that Seasons are prepared to pay for a strip of the football ground and Mr Orchard posed the question: "Why are Seasons willing to spend huge sums of money just for another access road that we believe they will build to adoption standards? The economics do not stack up and this leads us to think that the costs would only be justified if it would eventually lead to major development across the Burn Park area, owned by Seasons."
Cllr Bale said: "Bude and Stratton must be kept as separate towns and this development could threaten that. This must be nipped in the bud early, as it will be much harder once the football club has signed and the planning is in place."
Mr Keats stated: "I had been a Trustee of the football club for 40 years but resigned because Seasons wanted to buy land from them, and once the football club had signed there would be no recourse, and no actions could be questioned once the money had been taken."
Cllr Pearce added: "I am very concerned by this from a planning point of view. An access road between Bude and Stratton via Burn Park could open this whole area up for development. The Seasons development is outside the development boundaries and should stay this way."
In Cllr Val Newman's message to the meeting she said: "All must resist strongly any threat to the few special green areas that provide a buffer between the settlements — once they are gone, they are gone forever."
Mr Orchard explained that Bude FC trustees were invited to the meeting, but noone was available to attend. Peter Cobbledick, chair of the trustees, passed on a message before the meeting to the effect that giving Seasons access rights across a strip of the football ground should not have any detrimental effects on Bude.
Representing Bude Golf Club Steve Bartrop said: "The golf club is very concerned about the closeness of the proposed road to the golf club boundary."
Len Tozer, chair of the infant school Governors added: "Although the plan was supposed to be for the benefit of the school the disadvantages far outweighed the advantages."
For more information on the proposals, please contact Mr Orchard on 01288 355188 or email [email protected]">[email protected].
In a statement given to be read out at the meeting, a spokesman for Seasons Holidays Plc said: "During the course of our investigations, we have been advised that, for emergency vehicles, a secondary access may be required in addition to the main access from Stratton. We therefore approached the football club and the county council to explore the option of providing access through their sites whilst enabling key improvements to be made.
"As the county council state, Seasons' approach has enabled a strategic appraisal of the land to the north of the schools in order to improve the safety of the children, the security of the site and an improved traffic management scheme for peak school drop-off periods. Both the sketch scheme that was sent out by the county to the local residents with rights of way across the land and that being discussed with the football club are still at a very early stage.
"There is no intention to form a through route between Bude and Stratton and any access into Burn Park would be restricted, the details of which will be discussed further. Seasons are very aware of the sensitive landscape in which their beautiful village lies. We have therefore already approached environmentalists and landscape specialists in order to establish areas within the site that could be developed with the minimum of impact on the exposed visible green areas. This would be our primary focus in developing a scheme further.
"Seasons are aware that residents feel very strongly about protecting the assets of Bude and will progress as sensitively as possible in this respect. We have not attended this meeting, as the designs have not been developed/agreed in enough detail to discuss in a productive and positive way. However, it is our intention to keep you fully informed as and when appropriate as the design progresses.