Plans to keep rollercoaster overlooking Hucknall street are rejected
Proposals that would have left a rollercoaster overlooking homes in Hucknall have been refused by Ashfield Council
The construction of the rollercoaster at Watnall Road Aerodrome prompted complaints from Sandford Lane residents about noise, visual impact, and loss of privacy.
Fairground operator Mellors Group submitted a retrospective planning application to use Grade II listed hangars at the Watnall Road site for rollercoaster testing and storage.
The council rejected this application on October 20.
Outlining its objections, the council said: “The proposed change of use would result in the retention and operation of rollercoasters, and by virtue of their excessive scale, height, massing and visually prominent appearance, they would represent incongruous and intrusive features within the site and wider landscape.”
It added that the structures were ‘readily visible from surrounding residential areas, appear out of keeping with the area's established character, and detract from the setting of the Grade II-listed hangars’.
Furthermore, it said ‘substantial structures close to neighbouring properties would create opportunities for overlooking by employees at elevated positions, resulting in an unacceptable loss of privacy’.
The council also determined that ‘external maintenance, testing, assembly and repair involving plant, machinery and vehicles has the potential to generate significant noise disturbance, with insufficient evidence that such impacts could be appropriately controlled’.
Mellors Group said it would appeal the decision, adding there had been a ‘misunderstanding of their intentions’’
Mellors Group director James Mellor told the BBC that delays in shipping and other issues, including disruptions due to the war in the Middle East, which was causing shipping delays for materials and preventing work from taking place, meant the coaster had been in place longer than planned.
He said "We want the coaster out as quick as possible."
He added he wanted the change of use at the hangars to be able to ‘work on other rides’.
He continued: "Most rides are nowhere near the size of the coaster.
"A lot of things will actually be done below the fence line where people can't see.
"We don't want the coaster there any longer than they do because it doesn't make us any money while it's having work done on it in storage."