In June 2004, the Council received an outline planning application for a major leisure proposal known as Snoasis to be sited on land at Column Field Quarry (known as Masons quarry), West of the B1113 Great Blakenham, approximately 4 km North West of Ipswich. It includes the development of a ski centre and holiday resort; centre of winter sports excellence, golf course, leisure, and associated uses. The application site area amounts to 123 hectares (304 Acres).

http://x11.putfile.com/3/8012252487.jpg

The applicant and promoter of the scheme is Onslow Suffolk Ltd who are based in London. The applicant is supported by a full team of specialist consultants dealing with matters such as the broad layout and scheme design, town planning, transportation, drainage, landscape and visual appraisal, ecology, archaeology, air quality, noise, socio economic (employment) issues and risk assessment. Further background on the project is available to view on the applicants website, www.snoasis.co.uk.

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The Benefits

The creation of up to 3,000 jobs

Contribute £70m plus to region's economy

Potential for a new off-line station in Ipswich/Cambridge corridor

The re-use of a brownfield site

Major new tourist destination - comparable with th Eden Project

A major training facility for UK's winter sports athletes

Fully funded through private investment

The Facilities

Facilities include: Winter Sports, General Sport, Health & Fitness, Education and Entertainment.

An unprecedented £350m world class ski, leisure and tourism complex

The ultimate all year round winter sports resort

At it's centre - the world's biggest indoor ski slope

Bringing together 14 winter sports diciplines for the first time ever in the UK

Creating a "Centre Parcs" style themed activity resort for the whole family

Providing a winter sports centre of excellence for athletes and young people with the potential to become international and Olympic competitors

http://www.midsuffolk.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/77DD81B2-E9C1-469A-9257-00FD0A003F00/0/newmasterplan030304mid.jpg

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what with the availability of cheap flights to the continent, i'm sure the snoasis proposal won't appeal to everyone. however, and i say this a snowboarder myself, it's a good idea for weekends and shorter breaks and no doubt considerably less expensive. it might also be excellent as a means of getting younger people interested in winter sports, especially skating which this proposal caters for. i'm not sure i'm convinced by the developer's claims about it helping to develop olympic talent (certainly not for those already at the highest levels), but hopefully it will prove to be a boon for the east anglian tourist industry that only last month posted record earnings (breaking the one billion pounds barrier!).


mid-suffolk district development website (http://www.midsuffolk.gov.uk/environment/planning/snoasis/index.htm)

snoasis website (http://www.snoasis.co.uk/index.html)

Well, local news reported it will have the only speed-skating track in England.
Also, the British Winter Olympic Team confirmed recently that it will relocate to make its base here.
There's quite a bit of quiet opposition to granting planning permission from local politicians. They keep deferring the decision. It's mostly road congestion they are worried about.

Looks good except the housing looks a bit poor and low density. Hopefully a positive addition to the area though.

Well, local news reported it will have the only speed-skating track in England.
Also, the British Winter Olympic Team confirmed recently that it will relocate to make its base here.
There's quite a bit of quiet opposition to granting planning permission from local politicians. They keep deferring the decision. It's mostly road congestion they are worried about.

there's plenty of scope to develop a rail link to the site. there's already a two lane track running on the east coast main line which caters for nearby stowmarket - all you need is an enhancement to a stretch of access track and you're fully-connected to ipswich and norwich. simplicity.

http://www.bueker.net/trainspotting/maps/british-isles-network/british-isles-network.gif

http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=611840&y=250560&z=5&sv=611840,250560&st=4&tl=~&bi=~&lu=N&ar=y

it's a former quarry and unless someone's planning on flooding it and turning it into a nature reserve, i don't see many other options for this location. by exploiting this opportunity you're turning a wasteland into an important hub in british sports and encouraging valuable tourist pounds. the b113 is a stone's throw from the a14 (an admittedly poor quality road), but with talk of major new infrastructure investment on the region's roads anyway this should be an extra incentive. this a sustainable development with tremendous potential implications for the whole region and country at large.

At a 100m, can we assume this will be the tallest structure (or given its so flat, the tallest feature man-made or natural) in Suffolk?

mendlesham transmitter is over 1000ft tall - a very impressive sight given it's situated in an almost featureless landscape. suffolk is far less flat than people usually think, norfolk is in places however very much more so. ipswich has proposed the construction of a new 23-storey mixed use tower on its waterfront, i think grotbags has it listed on skyscrapernews (i'm not sure it makes it to 100m).

anyway, this is getting slightly off-topic...

Still a 100m Vertical for an indoor ski slope is very impressive, which leads to think that this project is not so likely. There have been many more modest indoor ski centres which have got rejected. Hope it goes through though because the plans seem an excellent use for the site..

there's already a ski slope on the outskirts of ipswich, like this proposal i believe the site was also once used as a quarry. i've never used the facilities there myself, but i'm told it's pretty basic and uninspiring.

there's another exciting project that i'll have to post a thread on later. ipswich is planning to build a new olympic-sized swimming pool actually located in the town. i think our leaders are making an early push for city status, come the next royal charter. personally i think selling off the airport to a property developer probably sunk any chance of their ambitions being realised, and digging up the runway at the defunct raf bentwaters (ideally placed for a major new international airport) surely couldn't have helped much. still, i refer you to the recent douglas adams quote i posted elsewhere for my thoughts on politicians.

back to the original point though. it's rather amusing they're boasting the scheme's future status as europe's largest indoor skiing centre when the continent plays host to both the alps and pyrenees.

there's already a ski slope on the outskirts of ipswich, like this proposal i believe the site was also once used as a quarry. i've never used the facilities there myself, but i'm told it's pretty basic and uninspiring.

It would presumably only be a dry slope though, which is basic compared to what you've shown us here.

This is very ambitious considering the length will be around 500m, and the largest current indoor slope in the UK is around 150m.

And yeah the "trainings centre for winter olympics" athletes is a little laughable, even at an impressive half kilometre, we're talking nowhere even near a minute for anyone remotely of Olympic Pace. The Alps and the Pyreenes can feel safe yet.

personally i don't care about the state of our winter olympic team, if we were to ever find ourselves genuinely competing with the likes of the swiss, austrians or swedes then i can only suggest the aforementioned countries collectively hang their heads in shame - they have all the advantages. no, i'm far more interested in the investment this development will bring into an entirely overlooked and neglected part of the country. despite virtually no help, east anglia has still achieved status as one of the fastest growing regions in england and this scheme will surely help that continued progress. we owe more to europe than to the london-centric westminster politicians; this region (east anglia proper: suffolk and norfolk) can't even boast a motorway between them.

and yes, the current ski centre is a dry slope. i've always been rather reluctant to use facilities based on the sophisticated 'brush technology' as the injuries you can incur are potentially horrific. i've always preferred the genuine thing, but i'd certainly be willing to try the amenities on this one.

Being a former resident of Ipswich and going to school in the village next to the site I can only say that I hope it goes ahead as I think it looks great for the region. Ipswich needs something like thsi, its a really nice mid sized town but at the moment unless you love small medieval churches or your looking for somewhere to park your yacht there is not much to attract people. The local people do seem to be against it which to a certain extent is understanable, it is after all a bueatiful area (if not as famous as over ares of Suffolk) but it cannot be worse than the cement works that were previously on the site and use to cover anything locally with a nice fine dust and with a chimney that could be seen from my what seemed like anywhere in suffolk.

planning has been approved! http://www.snoasis.co.uk/ , I think thats pretty good news. I hope it ends up looking better, on the outside, than that one in Dubai.

Good news :cheers:

the public inquiry examining the robustness of the scheme has now concluded and its findings should be released in the coming weeks. the financial aspects of the proposal were less a cause for concern than then implications for the local transport infrastructure and the impact on the natural environment (the area is a designated county wildlife site).

concerning transport congestion...i see the development team are intending to build a dedicated station to service the local housing and the snoasis site itself. as i stated in the opening posts, exploiting the railway system already in place (with some additional expansion) should help resolve these issues satisfactorily. i fear NIMBYism might still sink this whole project, though.


images lifted from the official site:

http://img397.imageshack.us/img397/5609/lgphotooutsidepb5.jpg

http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/8901/lgphotoslopezp4.jpg

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/4917/lgphotoicerinkke6.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/98/SnOasis_4.jpg/800px-SnOasis_4.jpg

a 3d archietcural model of the site:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a8/SnOasis_11.jpg/800px-SnOasis_11.jpg

This is a great development! It's going to be the world's largest ski slope isnt it? It looks great too, inside and out:)

This was granted approval this morning subject to meeting some conditions. Finally we should start to see it moving, great news for Ipswich!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/suffolk/7389668.stm

From the website http://www.snoasis.co.uk/

This is one huge project.


8th May 2008
SnOasis gets the go-ahead bringing an avalanche of opportunities.

Following government approval, work on the world’s first indoor winter sports resort will now commence delivering enormous economic benefits to the local community and the country as a whole. Costing an estimated £350 million the privately funded development will be deemed a “Super Site” by the construction industry, meaning this aspect alone will make it of international importance. Locally, a package of benefits costing £29 million will be put in place covering a wide range of projects including: the planting of 130,000 trees, a 40 acre ecological mitigation area, improvements to the Copdock intersection of the A12 and A14, skills and training initiatives, plus a main line Railway Station linking to London Liverpool Street in just over an hour. The full impact of the economic benefits will only be truly understood once the project is underway.

During the construction phase it is expected that 3,500 jobs will be created. When complete, a further 1,800 full-time equivalent jobs will be provided. These new employment opportunities will stimulate the local economy through spending in shops, the need for accommodation increasing demand and prices, and the sourcing of supplies from businesses within the region. As far as possible contracts will be awarded to local companies further strengthening the projects benefit to the economy.

On completion, SnOasis will provide the UK with the ultimate winter sports resort, and the world with a totally new holiday and sports concept. Covering 350 acres, the family themed resort will feature recreational activities encompassing winter sports of all kinds plus an extensive array of other sports. In addition to being a resort destination it will become a winter sports centre of excellence for athletes preparing for major competitions, with facilities matching the best in the world. Also, working with several educational establishments plans are underway to develop strategies aimed at educating students at all levels in disciplines related to the project.

The wider scheme proposals include plans for the development of around 421 new homes on an adjacent site including 35% of affordable housing, provision of land and a financial contribution for a new school and police station, highway improvements, roadside nature reserve and a cycle track.

Godfrey Spanner, Managing Director of Onslow Suffolk, the developer of the scheme said: “My nightmare is over, now my dream can begin. We have been working on this project for six years, with costs running into many millions. At last, SnOasis will become a reality to the benefit of Ipswich, Suffolk, East Anglia, the country, and of course, all of our hopes for greater success at major winter sports competitions.”

He continued: “It’s now time to move forward, just think, we will now be able to hold major international winter sports events in the UK, many for the first time. Also, we will give the 4 million winter sports enthusiasts, our athletes and the Ski industry in general a truly national focus. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Olympic Association, past Sports Ministers, Tourism bodies and all who supported us throughout the planning process for their help.”

this is going to be a great development, i'll be interested though how they intend to power the massive refridgeration needed on this project and if its enviromentally sustainable.

Hazel approved this today after it went to a P.I. Another thumbs up for her!

Good development. Wrong location. Suffolk isnt renowned for its wintery slopes- i'd rather this was built somewhere up North like Newcastle.

Why? It's an indoor ski slope for god sakes! Of course Suffolk isn't renowed for its wintry slopes but I'm not sure what thats got to do with anything.

It is a vital boost for the regions economy, which still manages to be quite good even though it is one of the most ignored corners of England, despite being only an hour form London!