Proposals unveiled to extend tourism enterprise at Eye Kettleby Lakes with new touring caravan park

Representatives of Eye Kettleby Lakes received a Gold Award for 'best holiday park' at the 2015 Leicester and Leicestershire Excellence in Tourism Awards EMN-160402-175730001

Plans have been submitted to increase tourist accommodation at the Eye Kettleby Lakes site by adding 68 new pitches for touring caravans and camper vans.

There are currently 46 pitches for existing clients but the Lomas family say that with the caravan park operating at maximum capacity for much of the year, with regular clients returning several times, more pitches are needed to cater for demand.

The new touring caravan park would be sited to the south of the existing park and fishing lakes.

Business director Joe Lomas said: “The new park would, if full, bring an extra 140 people on site.

“At least 90 per cent of our customers would go into Melton on a market day and pretty much all of them would use something in the town, whether it’s the restaurants and takeaways, taxis to get around or other services and facilities. It will bring in more income for the Melton area.

“It would take us six months to build the new site. If we got planning permission very quickly we’d hope for it to be open by next summer.”

The proposed new touring caravan park would have full facilities including two shower/washing/toilet blocks, with visitors also being served by the existing clubhouse.

A new lake has already been built in the south west corner of the site, serving as a conservation, wildlife and landscape feature and a water storage facility for surface water run-off from the site.

A landscape planting scheme of trees and shrubs is also planned which the Lomas’ say will help to further screen the view of caravans.

A design and access statement submitted as part of the planning application to Melton Council says: “The proposed touring caravan park will provide much needed increase in capacity for tourist accommodation at Eye Kettleby Lakes and the Melton area.

“The proposed project will create no nuisance, pollution or other problems . The access for all clients and initial construction machinery will be via the existing fishery main access route off Kirby Bellars to Great Dalby road.

“The daily traffic of visitor to the park’s proposed 68 pitches will be spaced out over the week and weekends. This means site traffic is spread out over a long period of each day and there’s no regular ‘rush hour’ or particular period of high traffic flows.”

Melton Council will decide the planning application in due course.