PLANNING chiefs have given the green light to plans to build an £80 million indoor water park and hotel to transform West Midland Safari Park into an all-year attraction and create hundreds of jobs in the area.

Wyre Forest District Council’s planning committee granted permission of the full plans of phase one of the development, a state-of-the-art water park, when they met on Tuesday (September 15).

An outline application for phase two – a 250-bed hotel, conference centre and spa – was also granted.

The authority have referred it to the Secretary of State – who will ascertain whether to exercise rights to call in the application for determination, due to it being a major redevelopment within greenbelt land.

The site, known as Bunkers Hill, is to the west of the park and is currently used as an overspill car park during busy times.

Plans for the water park include a splash area, wave pool, seven slides, external river rapids and a 200-seat restaurant.

Local residents expressed their concerns about the increased traffic congestion in the area as access to the new development would be via a new fourth arm at the A456 and B4190 Kidderminster Road roundabout and would be linked to the existing access road arrangements within the park.

Councillor Derek Killingworth, on behalf of Bewdley Town Council, said they were in favour of the new development as it would encourage tourism and employment in the area, but felt visitors would be discouraged from returning after experiencing congestion and delays.

Cllr Killingworth said: “That roundabout is regularly blocked by queuing traffic waiting to turn right at Catchems End, which would then be added to by vehicles leaving the water park site from the new exit.

“In fact, at peak times, all traffic leaving the Safari Park from the existing exit is forced to turn left only and then to use the roundabout to come back towards Kidderminster. This is because the long queues that would be generated by people waiting to turn right would cause a massive backlog in the park itself.

“The act of blocking the exit of turning right at peak times suggests there is already an acknowledgement the road layout is inadequate.

“We hope this new development is an asset to Bewdley, but believe that if the application is approved without further consultation it will become a liability.”

Graham MacDougal, a resident of Spring Grove, said: “We believe the plan is flawed giving a falsely positive case for the proposed extra access from the roundabout, when we know major congestion on local roads occur during Safari Park opening hours, especially through holiday periods, which regularly block the roundabout.”

Councillor Stephen Williams, who chairs the planning committee on Wyre Forest District Council, said the positives outweighed the negatives and the proposed the application should be delegated for approval.

Councillor Fran Oborski MBE stated other attractions on greenbelt land had been allowed to expand due to the role they played in employment in their areas.

She added: “We have to recognise the Safari Park is actually in competition with those facilities in other parts of the country and it won’t continue to thrive and it won’t continue to be a major employer in the Wyre Forest if we don’t allow it to expand."

“On balance, the advantages this brings to employment in the area do outweigh the greenbelt issues.”

Councillor Marcus Hart said: “Tourism and economic regeneration is one of our key priorities.

“This is going to bring huge benefit to this district.”

Bosses have said their planned £80m development at the site in Bewdley would create more than 300 jobs.