As Center Parcs today opens its new £250m Woburn Forest holiday resort, CEO Martin Dalby has called for the UK government to take the development of major leisure investments more seriously.

Talking exclusively to Leisure Opportunities, Dalby urged a rethink in the planning process for major developments, and revealed that Center Parcs is now looking to Ireland for its next project.

He said: "When big investments like this come along, there should be a way of bypassing the local authority to get it built – there needs to be someone in government responsible for these big projects."

According to Dalby, Center Parcs spent £5m just getting the Woburn site through planning and – more importantly – the process took five years, thereby depriving the area of valuable employment opportunities at the height of the recession. "When we announced the project in 2004, we said we'd open in 2008. We would have achieved that deadline, and then the area could have had the benefit of all those jobs right throughout the recession,” he said.

"When we submitted the application, the council spent a year just looking at it – It was ridiculous. We had to go through that local planning process with local people who didn't really understand what we were doing. Lots of companies wouldn't have taken that risk and wouldn't have invested. There's got to be a faster way than it taking five years.

"This was such a great site that we believed in our project and persevered - it's an amazing forest and perfect for Center Parcs and that's where our determination came from, because even our barristers advised us it would be a tough battle.

"But our credentials – at Longleat and our other sites – showed that we mean what we say. When we say there are 1,500 jobs we mean it."

The Blackstone Group-owned resort operator launched the new £250m complex this morning (6 June). It will feature 625 lodges, a 75-bedroom hotel, Center Parcs’ largest Subtropical Swimming Paradise and an Aqua Sana spa.

"What was fantastic about this scheme is that the secretary of state overrode her own inspector to get it through, because she recognised the positive impact it would have on jobs and tourism. This Center Parcs development will put £20m into the local economy each year in wages, salaries and expenditure through local businesses – she recognised that and those things outweighed the negatives of building in the green belt.

But in spite of it being a huge success story for UK PLC, Dalby says Center Parcs has no contact with government, and believes this to be a recurring theme for the leisure sector. "Generally, I don't feel anyone champions us in government as a sector," he added. "We don't have any contact with them at all. We've had good support at local level from our MP, but we plough our own furrow."

Dalby said that this fifth and final Center Parcs site completes the portfolio in England, with a development in Ireland the most likely next step.

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