The public inquiry into the proposed SnOasis indoor snow centre development in Suffolk started last week.

The Government ordered the public inquiry after Mid Suffolk District Council gave the leisure complex, the nearby housing development and the railway station the green light, despite numerous queries over the planning process from locals.

Landscape and design experts, giving evidence said that the £300 million development will create a new 21st century landmark acting as a beacon for regeneration.

If approved by the Government, once the inspector has given his verdict after the hearing, it will include a ski-slope, a four star 350-bed hotel, 350 chalets, 100 apartments and many new jobs at nearby Great Blakenham.

It is part of a wider development including 421 new homes, doubling the size of the village, and a new railway station.

Philip Russell-Vick, a witness appearing on behalf of SnOasis developers Onslow Suffolk told the inquiry that the ski-slope would be a “highly unusual, perhaps unique, structure”.

Drifting into the flowery language of architects he claimed that “its simple angled form is a clear expression of the building's function as an artificial skiing facility.”

It is right that the inquiry goes ahead following a series of failed businesses from the same developers. As reported in Private Eye, Onslow, the company applying to build the SnOasis centre, had a separate business park project shelved and creditors informed of their rights after their subsidiary company Onlsow Ditchling Ltd was declared insolvent.

Onslow Ditchling, where top SnOasis backer Godfrey Spanner is company secretary, director and shareholder, went into administration after a major dispute with one of the company’s main suppliers, Fitzpatrick Ltd.

Although there are no direct links between Onslow Ditchling and Onslow Suffolk, meaning the Suffolk company is not financially jeopardized, the Fitzpatrick family are 51% owners, something which Spanner said would not affect his plans for SnOasis as he ‘remained on good terms’ with them.

Onslow Ditchling is the third company in two years to have been wound up under Spanner’s watch. Southern Restoration Group PLC, of which Spanner was a shareholding director and director, went into administration in February of 2004. Newhaven Property Development Company Limited was liquidated in October of that year – Spanner was company secretary and Director.

[Used with permission from Natives]