Shropshire park bosses express delight at expansion plans
Bosses at a Shropshire tourist attraction have expressed their delight after winning planning permission to expand its café and install a new biomass boiler.
Planning officers have given the green light for the development at Attingham Park, near Shrewsbury, which will see the restaurant and café extended to cope with rising visitor numbers.
Figures show visitor numbers have almost trebled at the park in the last 10 years, from 140,000 in 2004-5 to 395,000 last year.
And to embrace the interest in the park, the National Trust plans to extend what is currently the Carriage House Café and transform it into the Stables Restaurant and coffee shop.
Under the plans new seating areas will be created which will more than double the current facilities.
The plans also include the creation of a new hot food serving area and a separate coffee shop as well as a purpose-built kitchen.
Included in the scheme are plans for a district biomass system which will remove the property's reliance on oil by providing hot water and heating to the stable block and mansion.
The 320kw biomass boiler will replace Attingham's current annual consumption of 40,000 litres of oil with wood chip produced onsite from the estate.
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The boiler will be housed within a new building designed to blend in with the historic surroundings. Landscaping and parking will also undergo a transformation to deal with increased visitor numbers.
Estate managers are now in the process of appointing a contractor and work will start in June. It is hoped that the biomass system will be online by September.
Mark Agnew, Attingham Park's general manager, said: "We are very, very pleased that we have been granted planning permission for the works. We have worked very closely with Shropshire Council and Historic England on this whole scheme.
"We had to think very carefully about the approach we were taking. We are now in the process of appointing a contractor. There is still a lot of work to be done but we are hoping to start work in June and the biomass will be on stream in September.
"Hopefully the new Stables Restaurant and coffee shop will be open by the spring of 2017. Everything is on schedule and and it is all going well. But we still have got quite a long way to go. However, it is fair to say we are really, really pleased."
