WORRIED Bewdley councillors and Civic Society members have urged the Government to put the brakes on a multi-million transformation of West Midland Safari Park.

Both Bewdley Town Council and the town’s Civic Society have raised concerns about the attraction’s proposed £80million indoor water park and hotel amid fears about the impact on traffic and building on greenbelt land.

Letters have now been sent to the Secretary of State asking for the application, to be called in for further consideration to alleviate these issues.

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 at the meeting.

The authority had automatically referred the application to the Secretary of State, due to it being a major development within greenbelt land, and a spokesman said they would await the decision on whether it should be called in.

West Midland Safari Park declined to comment on the matter at this stage.

Bewdley town councillor Derek Killingworth said: “If this applicant is allowed to build on the greenbelt it will, I fear, be a sign to developers that Wyre Forest is open for development of such land.

“As it is, if this development proceeds as intended the loss of greenbelt amenity to the area will be horrendous.

“There will be traffic problems which is an issue that far too little thought has been given and Bewdley will suffer.”

Richard Perrin, chairman of the Civic Society, said: “We were disappointed nearly all councillors at the district council planning committee gave their ‘thumbs up’ to the planning application notwithstanding the strong reservations many of them voiced at the time.

“We regret very little attempt appears to have been made to site the development in a less obtrusive location such that the visual impact on the greenbelt would be considerably reduced.

“Like the town council, we are also seriously concerned it will exasperate our existing traffic problems.

“This is why we have urged the Secretary of State to call in the application and refer its design and layout back for further consideration.”

Safari Park bosses have said the new facilities would create more than 1,000 jobs when the whole site is completed, as well as providing a boost to tourism in the area.

Nick Laister, senior director at RPS – the Safari Park’s planning advisor – told councillors at last month’s planning meeting that they had worked for two to three years to assess all traffic issues with Worcestershire County Council’s highways, who were satisfied there would be no adverse impact.

He also said that Bunker’s Hill, the proposed site for the redevelopment, was best suited to house the new facilities and chosen following a detailed assessment of the Park’s grounds.

The water park is scheduled to open in 2017 and the hotel and conference centre to follow in 2020.