It Seems Suffolk's Indoor Snow Centre Dream Has Finally Ended
It Seems Suffolk's Indoor Snow Centre Dream Has Finally Ended
Published : 15-Mar-2024 09:57
A 25-year-old plan to build an indoor snow centre in a former quarry at Great Blakenham near Ipswich in Suffolk appears to finally be over.
The original SnOasis development (above) was first mooted in the late 1990s by local businessman Godfrey Spanner, who in 2001 proposed a British wintersports centre of excellence with a 400 metre indoor snow slope (more than twice the length of existing British indoor slopes) and facilities for other winter sports.
The plan came under fierce opposition from locals however, who formed a group called SnOasis Concern. However moving through various appeals processes at local council level, it was eventually pushed up to central government where it gained planning approval. At the peak of the controversy around the centre, in around 2008, it was proposed that SnOasis could serve as an elite training facility ahead of the 2012 London Olympics. However that came around the time of the global economic crash and the project foundered in to the early 2010s before eventually going quiet. Mr Spanner was declared bankrupt in 2012 but said his plans remained alive.
That seemed to be the end of things until it suddenly resurfaced in 2020, just as the pandemic hit, scaled back into a more outdoor holiday village, low profile development, incorporating a much reduced indoor snow slope with a grass covered roof, and rebranded Valley Ridge. It received full planning permission four years ago, but just as in 2008, construction work did not commence.
It's now been announced that the company behind the Valley Ridge development have now formally abandoned its ambitions for the site after Suffolk County Council granted a 10-year extension to a neighbouring landfill site.
The site where SnOasis was to bed built is currently up for sale and that seems to be the end of the matter …although the planning permission granted in 2020 still applies should any company wish to buy the site and revive the dream again.
The UK currently has five indoor snow centres operational in Tamworth, Milton Keynes, Castleford, Manchester and Hemel Hempstead. Most are now 20-30 years old. A sixth centre, at Braehead near Glasglow, ceased operating in late 2022 blaming soaring energy costs making it non-viable.
Other recent proposals for Swindon and Middlesborough have also been abandoned although there remains a live project for a major new indoor snow centre Rhydycar West in Wales.
Worldwide indoor snow centres continue to gain in popularity, particularly in Asia where China has now opened more than 50 of them. There are currently more than 150 operating across more than 30 countries on six continents. Several in the Netherlands, Germany and Norway are renewable-energy self-sufficient thanks to vast solar arrays and other green power tech systems.
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