Parkdean Announces the Withdrawal of it's Appeal!
What great news that Parkdean have informed us they are withdrawing from the appeal! This news has been very well received by all. The news came in a letter from the General Manager of Parkdean Ruda Holiday Park, a copy of which can be found here. A response from the CARA Chair has been delivered, a copy of the letter can be found here.
Our beautiful AONB has been saved! Future development in this prominent location will once more have the natural landscape and environment at the fore front of material planning considerations!
What happens now?
As you can imagine with legal proceedings – everything is not all done and dusted yet! There is still work to be done by the lawyers to conclude the legal proceedings, and for the total costs to be agreed/assessed. Consequently, CARA does not yet have a final figure for costs, and may not for a while.
Until a final line has been drawn under the court case and we know exactly where we stand with costs, it would be premature for CARA to do anything else right now regarding the court case funds.
What will happen to any surplus funds?
CARA will be putting in place a clear, transparent process for determining what happens with surplus funds.
There are a few things we need to consider…
Parkdean has offered to match funds for community projects, stating that, if CARA donates its costs in the appeal to the community Parkdean will match that amount. Details of how this fund would work in practice have yet to be explored with Parkdean, and again that is unlikely to be until the legal side of the case has been concluded.
In addition, the CARA court case funds can only be applied for the purposes publicised by CARA at the time of setting up the court case fund. These are based on protecting the AONB (the natural environment of this area) and peoples' enjoyment of it, and are in accordance with CARA’s Charitable Objects.
So, in all probability, it will be the New Year before CARA can take this aspect further.
In the meantime...
...thank you for your wonderful support in this important court case, and have a happy festive season!
The CARA Team