Bedgebury is holding a Christmas 'Lapland UK' Experience

[TheDuchessOfNorksBride]

... covering a part of the forest with fake snow, Christmas village, Raymond Briggs 'The Snowman' ride, Father Christmas visit, mulled wine to fortify parents, reindeer, husky dogs, trumpeters and all sorts. I'm soooo excited. Er, for my children, obviously...

It's quite expensive though (I just paid £167 for a family of 5). Here is the link. And here is the itinery.

And it's selling out quite quickly.

No article didn't elaborate I'm afraid.

Thanks Lizs, I won't panic yet ! Can I ask you a big favour - if you see anything else about it in the paper would you mind updating this thread ?

I've just been stewing on this and have emailed them to ask about their contigency plan and if it is needed, how exactly it will differ to the original outlined on the site.

I'll update this thread when I get an answer.

The council website seems to be down at the moment. Bedgebury may have been discussing the details with the council before submitting the planning app, to give it the best chance of a smooth ride through the system.

I'm going on the 21st Dec:

29th Nov - bomper & yorkiegirl
30th Nov - piximon
1st Dec - victorvictoria
8th Dec - DuchessofNorksB
9th Dec - Lilyloo
15th Dec - JodieG1, WaynettaSlob, bumblelion, marina
17th Dec - cazzybabs
21st Dec - mymama, squiffy, ChippyMinton
27th Dec - ELR

we could set up a counter-petition www.gopetition.com/msg.php?msgid=227216&isearch=

They have been quick to reply :

Thank you for your enquiry.

We are sorry you have worried unnecessarily due to misleading press reports.

Tunbridge Wells Council has always been extremely supportive of Lapland UK
and we look forward to bringing Christmas magic to the UK from 24th
November.

So I am going to take it that as Chippyminton says, they have discussed it with the planning officers before submitting and passing it is just a formality. Well I hope it is !

I didn't add myself to the list in my hormonal moment over the planning permission !

29th Nov - bomper & yorkiegirl
30th Nov - piximon
1st Dec - victorvictoria
8th Dec - DuchessofNorksB
9th Dec - Lilyloo
15th Dec - JodieG1, WaynettaSlob, bumblelion, marina, chocolateteapot
17th Dec - cazzybabs
21st Dec - mymama, squiffy, ChippyMinton
27th Dec - ELR

good , sounds like a technicality .

I would be most surprised if it ran into a serious problem. I'll update too if I see anything in the papers in the next couple of weeks.

chippy - not a word from my brother yet although a couple of people have tried to contact him via me on Friends Reunited. But I'm not paid up for messaging and don't intend to just to get my brothers mail!

ok. Have seen the objections (and you can look too... here )

Basically three locals are unhappy at disruption/enviromental impact/inappropriateness of the site, and one 'society' - the 'Weald of Kent' have laid in with similar....

watch this that space...

these NIMBY tree-huggers must hate christmas - all those fir trees being chopped down to be decorated then flung out on Jan 1st

Any update on this ?
Also wondering if those going at end of Nov have had their invites yet ?

Anyone

Hi all. I'm afraid I'm an imposter - I'm actually a Dad, but bear with me... a colleague of mine called Lapland, to be told that the negative hype was built up by the media (although they would say that). They said that the tickets are a little slow in going out, apologies etc, but that all is definitely still going ahead (again, they would say that...). I was up at Bedgebury this weekend, and saw that there is a lot of work going on - all sealed off so you can't see a great deal, but there's definite activity! Apologies if you all knew this anyway.

29th Nov - bomper & yorkiegirl
30th Nov - piximon
1st Dec - victorvictoria
8th Dec - DuchessofNorksB
9th Dec - Lilyloo
15th Dec - JodieG1, WaynettaSlob, bumblelion, marina, chocolateteapot
17th Dec - cazzybabs
21st Dec - mymama, squiffy, ChippyMinton, skankywitch
27th Dec - EL

Really hope it is all going ahead, wish I hadn't checked this thread until it was all sorted and confirmed it will be ok.
Have looked at all the plans for the christmas village and they look great. So fingers crossed for us all.
xx

29th Nov - bomper & yorkiegirl
30th Nov - piximon
1st Dec - victorvictoria
8th Dec - DuchessofNorksB
9th Dec - Lilyloo
15th Dec - JodieG1, WaynettaSlob, bumblelion, marina, chocolateteapot
17th Dec - cazzybabs
21st Dec - mymama, squiffy, ChippyMinton, skankywitch
27th Dec - EL

Really hope it is all going ahead, wish I hadn't checked this thread until it was all sorted and confirmed it will be ok.
Have looked at all the plans for the christmas village and they look great. So fingers crossed for us all.
xx

I have a friend going on Sunday 25th Nov and her tickets arrived at the end of last week. So Bedgebury still seem confident.

The hearing is on Monday 19th Nov, so I'll check the site and update this thread.

I suppose they may have an agreed annual quota for tree felling, it being a managed forest and all, and they've just happened to fell in the Lapland area this year. In which case, any complaints about cutting down trees are misguided.

I posted a message of support for the devt and the council have written back confirming that Monday is decision day - I think the meeting is around 4.30 pm though.

To save you having to read through any of the stuff on the web, there are I think around 120 objections from local people (as well as the letters, they set up an online petition), mostly because the access road is apparantly very narrow and car parking not sufficient and that this kind of thing is 'not appropriate' and belogns in a theme park, not a forest.

Then there are some concerns that apparantly the company did not submit applications on time or consult the right people

and a couple of wildlife groups have objected because of disruption to wildlife & flora & fauna.

IMO some of the objections come across as a bit nimby, but there are also some compelling arguments against the proposal, especially those relating to the access, and the felling of trees and suchlike ahead of permission being granted.

Against that there have been supportive messages from the tourism part of the council, and from the enviromental officer I think (subject to caveats), and I think someone pointed out that Demelza House (local children's hospice) and the London Black Cab association are very strongly behind the scheme (they are doing one of their 'children charity days' there), and I think that a couple of other local groups have stated that they do NOT object in principle.

So it is definately NOT cut and dried, and I would take what the Lapland people are saying with a pinch of salt. My gut feeling is that it will be given permission, but it could go the other way, especially if they get bolshy about tickets being sold without permission being granted.

..... we shall see .....

could some update this ASAP? We're going soon. better call them.

how odd to leave decision so late...

Eeeek! I've missed all of this, crikey.
Thanks for the updates and info Duchess, Squiffy, Lizs, Chippy and Chocolate
I've got to admit I was mildly surprised at something on this scale being allowed at Bedgebury and I was wondering about access too.
And now I have guilt about the environmental impact...
Well, let's see what happens on the 19th.

I too had missed this COMPLETELY. Blimey - what a to do.

here is a piece of reporting which suggests that the environmental impact of this project has been carefully looked at...Mike Battle sounds like a man on a mission