Cautious Optimism at Croome

Croome Court in Worcestershire has been empty for over ten years. The Grade I Georgian house is largely the work of Lancelot "Capability" Brown, who also designed the park which was acquired by the National Trust in 1995.

Earlier this year Malvern Hills District Council approved plans to convert the stables and ancillary wing into 15 apartments, whilst leaving the mansion empty - subject to the Secretary of State's approval. English Heritage accepted the scheme, but SAVE and the Georgian Group objected vigorously that this would compromise future uses for the mansion, and threatened to condemn it to another decade of vacancy and decay.

As a result the Secretary of State refused to consider the application until one for the mansion had been received as well. Such an application has now been made. There are a number of particular problems with the scheme to use the magnificent state rooms as offices and the first and second floors as apartments, but a comprehensive scheme for the whole group of buildings is a huge step in the right direction.

Success in Stamford

A vigorous local campaign, supported by SAVE, has forced South Kesteven District Council to throw out an application to redevelop a very sensitive site beside the Town Meadow. Stamford Civic Society demonstrated that the 14 houses would have destroyed the finest view of the town - of the roofs rising up to the church spires from the Meadows and the Town Bridge - much to the anger of councillors. The development would have required the demolition of a number of interesting eighteenth and nineteenth century buildings on the site of the earliest settlement in Stamford, and the loss of a medieval right of way, St Mary's Passage, which is still entered through a Norman arch from St Mary's Hill.

Up until a week and a half before the committee meeting, the feeling was still that the scheme would be approved. However, pressure from SAVE, English Heritage and the amenity societies turned the tide. There is clearly scope for some development of the site, but this must be based on principles of sensitive reuse and insertion rather than wholesale clearance.

Royal William Yard, Plymouth

A case of great concern to SAVE for most of the decade. After many years in the inept hands of the now defunct Plymouth Development Corporation, the Yard has passed into the hands of English Partnerships. Our growing concern, shard by many, is that EP might repeat many of the mistakes made by its predecessor.

The Yard is one of the finest industrial and military complexes in the country, built by Sir John Rennie in 1825 - 33 as a model factory and storage complex to supply the fleet with all its victualling needs. It consists of seven Scheduled Ancient Monuments (soon to be Grade I listed buildings) of monumental classicism. After being released by the MoD in 1994, it passed in to the hand of the Development Corporation, who finally reached agreement with developers MEPC to develop a 120,000 sq. ft factory retail village in the Yard just before it was wound up. The MEPC scheme envisage 2.3 million visitors a year, despite the very difficult access along a narrow residential peninsula, and a multi story car park in the Yard itself. Moreover, MEPC only had uses for approximately 50% of the floor area, and the scale of the retail operation would put off other potential users.

Fortunately, MEPC has now pulled out, but in carrying out yet another master-planning exercise, EP appears to be resurrecting another of the Development Corporation's unrealistic ideas - attracting a "major themed attraction" to the site. SAVE believes that the future of the Yard would be best secured as a kind of urban village, predominately residential, but also with retail, office, workshops, restaurants and bars, a hotel and other uses creating a lively new quarter by day and night. This is a view supported by many local property professionals and we will continue to press for such an approach to be adopted.

Cricket St Thomas

This country house and park in Somerset is most familiar as the setting for the TV programme To the Manor Born. For many years the Grade II house and the II* registered park has been the home of a wildlife park. SAVE was appalled to learn recently of an application to build a 24o room hotel complex next to the house. This would have a devastating and permanent impact on the garden and park and the setting of the house and would involve the demolition of a number of interesting ancillary buildings, and the application was opposed by SAVE, the Georgian Group, the Ancient Monuments Society, the Garden History Society and the CPRE. However, English Heritage did not object and South Somerset District Council approved the plans. The objectors immediately asked for the case to be called in for public inquiry, but the Secretary of State refused.

The case throws up a number of worrying issues. First, the scheme will undoubtedly cause enormous harm to a II* registered landscape. It is hard for such a vast complex not to. Second, the quality of the officer's report was extremely poor, relying uncritically on the applicant's supporting statement, which contained no adequate assessment of the impact of the development on the listed buildings and registered landscape. Third, English Heritage has simply, in the opinion of the other national conservation bodies, failed in this case to adequately protect the historic environment. It appears not to have learnt from the sad case of Down Hall in Bridport to make the best use is made of its in-house gardens expertise. Moreover, the united and vociferous opposition of half a dozen expert national organisations counted for naught because both the local authority and the Secretary of State accepted the "official" opinion of English Heritage, despite it being alone in supporting the scheme.

There appears to be little chance of preventing the development now, and no doubt that it will permanently disfigure this quintessentially English location. Moreover, the developers, Warner Holidays, who have already created three similar developments in listed country houses are planning a further nine such hotels. No doubt we will be meeting them elsewhere in the future.