Great Wolf Lodge appeals against leisure park refusal

Great Wolf Resorts has appealed the refusal by Cherwell District Council for a £200 million leisure park in Bicester.

Plans for a Great Wolf Lodge at Chesterton were unanimously rejected by councillors in March who followed officers’ recommendation to refuse the plan for a water park resort with 498-room hotel on an 18.6-hectare site, which is nine holes of the existing 18-hole golf course at Bicester Hotel Golf and Spa.

It would be the first Great Wolf Lodge outside North America and the firm’s flagship UK resort.

But the proposal had attracted more than 800 objections.

A Great Wolf Resorts spokesman told Thames Tap: “We continue to believe in the economic, recreational and community benefits of a Great Wolf Lodge family resort in Chesterton, and therefore have submitted an appeal to the Planning Inspectorate.”

If it had been approved in March Great Wolf had predicted a two-year build and possible opening in the second half of 2022.

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