That was the message from Story Homes – the firm behind the proposal – on the final day of a public inquiry into the plans.
Crucially, the hearing was also advised that Chorley Council was not contesting an appeal lodged by the developer over the Charnock Richard project – and agreed that planning permission should be granted for it.
Last week’s three-day inquiry came after the authority initially failed to reach a decision on the proposed development within the time limit for doing so – a situation it blamed on Lancashire County Council for delays in providing highways advice.
Story Homes subsequently appealed to the independent Planning Inspectorate over the so-called ‘non-determination’ of its outline application – meaning an inspector will now decide whether or not the Park Hall Road scheme can go ahead.
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Image via Chorley Council planning portal
Planning appeals heard by the Inspectorate usually revolve around developer proposals that have been rejected by local councils – with each side providing evidence in support of their own case. Even in instances of non-determination, a council will often declare that it would have been ‘minded to’ refuse an application – and come armed with the reasons why.
However, at the outset of the Camelot site inquiry, Chorley Council’s legal representative explained that when the appeal was made last year, “the only outstanding issue was in relation to highways”.
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The route that would connect two parcels of the proposed housing development. (image: Google)
In his opening submission, Freddie Humphreys added: “The council now accepts that all relevant matters have been addressed and consequently it does not oppose the grant of planning permission.”
The authority’s position left Story Homes to present its own evidence on highways and planning issues, which was not subject to challenge from the district authority.
It is the third time the company has brought forward a blueprint to redevelop the once-popular attraction, which closed its doors for the final time in November 2012 amid declining visitor numbers, having been in operation for 29 years.
In 2014, a pitch to create 420 properties was rejected by Chorley Council because of the impact it was considered they would have on the greenbelt location. For similar reasons, a revised plan for 195 homes and an adjoining office and workshop development was blocked by the authority four years later.
In a closing statement on Thursday, Christopher Katkowski KC, the barrister acting for Story Homes, said the latest proposal – which includes a community building and also leaves around half of the 25-hectare plot as open space – “would not be inappropriate development in the greenbelt” and would provide “safe and suitable access for all users”.
“The proposals would deliver a great deal of public good with precious little harm,” he added. The housebuilder has pledged that half of the properties will fall into the discounted ‘affordable homes’ category – 15 percent more than the target set in a longstanding Central Lancashire-wide planning strategy.
The issue of access to the estate had been a stumbling block for Lancashire County Council which had initially objected to the blueprint for the abandoned site – in its capacity as the highways authority – after the planning application was submitted to Chorley Council in June 2025.
Highways officials at County Hall had expressed concern at the prospect of dealing with road-related issues at a later point in the planning process – the so-called ‘reserved matters’ stage – by which point it said they may be “difficult to resolve”.
As of late November last year – less than a month before Story Homes’ appeal was lodged and after continued engagement with the firm since the summer – the county council was still dissatisfied with several highway and transport matters, particularly the route planned for access to the second parcel of the proposed development.
That would largely comprise the existing lane to the Park Hall Hotel, which runs alongside a dam. The county authority said it considered the route “unsuitable” and would require it to be “set back at least five metres from any body of water or infrastructure designed to retain water”. It also claimed there was no “meaningful sustainable transport strategy” for the site.
Planning applications for major development should be decided by local planning authorities within 13 weeks. With that timeframe – and an agreed extension – having by then been exceeded, Story Homes lodged its appeal with the Planning Inspectorate shortly before Christmas.
The county authority maintained its objection until mid-March this year when, according to Chorley Council’s opening submission to the inquiry, County Hall accepted that any outstanding concerns could be addressed during the reserved matters process – when the details of an approved planning application are finalised.
That was the position put before last week’s inquiry, at which Chorley Council also stated that it was content that “all other technical matters had been addressed and could be appropriately dealt with” by planning conditions and agreements.
However, the authority’s declaration dismayed one of its own councillors and some of the residents opposed to the development who had also attended the inquiry hearings.
Cllr Alan Whittaker, who represents the Eccleston, Heskin and Charnock Richard ward and spoke against the housing plan at the inquiry, later told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that the development would be “a disaster” for the area.
“I made it very plain to the [Chorley Council] planning department that we wanted a rigorous defence of this appeal – but then [on the first day of the inquiry], we heard they weren’t going to oppose it, because they hadn’t got the evidence. As one of the residents said to me, ‘So what are we doing here?’
“There is meaningful evidence that has been supplied both by residents and Charnock Richard, Eccleston and Heskin parish councils – and I’ve been speaking about this for two years. Park Hall Road is a narrow country lane – and with this [additional] number of cars, it will be absolute gridlock.
“So we will have to rely on the inspector’s [perception of] reality now,” Cllr Whittaker said.
In a statement issued to the LDRS following the conclusion of the inquiry, Cllr Alex Hilton, cabinet member for planning and development at Chorley Council, said the authority had been “unable” to bring the proposal to its cross-party planning committee of councillors in the usual way, “because key advice from Lancashire County Council, acting as the highway authority, was not provided in time”.
He added: “As a direct result of that delay, the applicant decided to appeal to the planning inspector.
“Unfortunately, the Planning Inspectorate and independent legal advice strongly indicated that the council did not have defensible planning grounds to contest the appeal. Continuing would have risked significant costs falling on the council and, therefore, local taxpayers.”
In response, a spokesperson for Lancashire County Council said: “[We] worked with the applicant throughout the planning process for the former Camelot site and provided statutory highways advice to Chorley Council as the local planning authority.
“Our assessment identified a number of highway-related issues that required further information or changes. We provided detailed advice to the applicant on these matters throughout the process – however, a number of these issues remained unresolved at the point the applicant chose to appeal on the grounds of non-determination.
“All advice submitted by the local highway authority is publicly available on Chorley Council’s planning portal.”
Planning inspector Andrew McGlone – who visited the site as part of the inquiry – will now decide whether or not to approve the housing proposals in the coming weeks.
Camelot redevelopment: the case for…
Story Homes laid out a litany of reasons why the Planning Inspectorate should approve the construction of the new estate on the one-time theme park.
The firm’s barrister at the inquiry argued that the proposed estate complied with local planning policy that permits building on previously-developed land in the greenbelt – providing the appearance of the site is maintained or enhanced.
The proposal would “considerably enhance” the plot, Christopher Katkowski said in his opening submission.
He also contended that the site met the definition of ‘grey belt’ – introduced by the government 18 months ago – meaning the housing plans would not constitute “inappropriate” development in the greenbelt, which would otherwise have to demonstrate “very special circumstances” in order to be approved.
In his closing statement, Mr. Katkowski added that in “ no sensible assessment could it conceivably be said” that the site strongly makes any contribution to the purposes of the greenbelt.
He also told the inquiry that provision of half of the properties at an affordable rate should be given “substantial weight” because of the growing shortfall of such homes in Chorley, where 162 are required each year, but an average of only 116 are delivered.
Chorley Council is also currently unable to show that it has a five-year supply of land set aside to meet its new housing need and so, under national planning guidance, all sustainable development should be permitted unless the “adverse impacts” of it would “significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits”.
On transport issues, Mr Katkowski said: “One cannot force people not to use their cars – instead one should do what one sensibly can, given the location of the site, to provide realistic opportunities for people to walk and/or cycle and/or catch the bus to and from facilities and services in the wider area.”
…and against
The planning inquiry was presented with submissions from Eccleston, Heskin and Charnock Richard ward councillors Alan Whittaker and Arjun Singh, South Ribble MP Paul Foster, whose constituency covers the former Camelot site, and a retired town planning consultant speaking on behalf of Eccleston, Heskin and Charnock Richard parish councils – all of whom started and explained their opposition to the proposed development.
Cllr Singh noted that more than 200 public objections had been registered with the Planning Inspectorate.
However, he added: “I am not asking the inspector to dismiss this appeal simply because residents oppose it. I am asking the inspector to recognise that residents oppose it because they understand the realities of this location better than anyone. They live here, they drive these roads every day, they walk these footpaths.
“The closure of Camelot was disappointing for many people and there is a genuine desire to see the site regenerated. But the question…is not whether the site should be reused, [but] whether this particular proposal represents the right development in the right place. It is my firm view that it does not.”
Meanwhile, Paul Foster said Park Hall Road “is already extremely congested with traffic coming from the M6 motorway via Standish, from the A49 Chorley/Charnock Richard junction, as well as the rural villages…such as Eccleston, Croston and Ulnes Walton”.
“An additional 350 houses will equate to significantly more vehicle journeys to and from the development every day, causing further such gridlock on a remote, ill equipped, unsafe highway,” the MP added in his statement.
He also noted that the site was not one of those identified for development in the proposed new Central Lancashire Local Plan, which is awaiting approval from another planning inspector before it can be officially adopted across Chorley, South Ribble and Preston.
While that process is far from complete, Mr. Foster said a decision at this stage to approve the homes planned for the Camelot land would “seriously compromise” the new planning strategy for the sub-region – and could lead to what he described as “further speculative developments”.
Abandoned theme park site at risk of ‘trespass and arson’
Most of the more than 100 buildings and structures on the former Camelot site were cleared during work which began in December 2020 – eight years after the seasonal attraction had closed.
The much-loved theme park attracted up to 500,000 visitors a year at its peak during the 1980s and 1990s – when it drew people from across the North West and beyond – but a rough ride in later years saw numbers coming through its distinctive castle entrance fall to around fewer than 340,000 by 2005.
Chorley Council’s barrister said at the inquiry that the authority had “long recognised” the need to develop the redundant plot – not all of which is covered by the Story Homes proposals.
The hearing was told that in spite of security measures being implemented to address antisocial behaviour issues such as “trespassing, arson and structural damage”, problems were likely to continue until the site was “repurposed for a secure, long-term active use”.
The inquiry began just two days after a huge blaze broke out at the spot, destroying one of its last-remaining buildings – a wooden castle-style unit that functioned as a food court and soft play centre when the theme park was open, but which has since been used as part of the Scare City Experience that has intermittently operated on the site in recent years. Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service suggested the inferno had been started deliberately, although the police later disputed that assessment.
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