Saturday, April 19, 2008

Developers eye up Cotswold Water Park

Parts of one of Britain's best-known gravel pit complexes are under threat.

SAA Matters, newsletter of the Specialist Anglers Alliance, warns developers are buying up lakes in the Cotswold Water Park and building holiday homes around them.

"It seems the market cannot get enough of these properties and now there is a queue of developers around the block trying to buy up any piece of available water," writes Tim Marks.

"Any piece of water and the adjacent land in the Cotswold Water Park area is now the subject of developer attention.

"Those fisheries that are on short-term leases are extremely vulnerable. When the times comes for renegotiation, the anglers are simply outbid with the net result that the water is lost to angling."

Waters owned outright by South Cerney AC are safe from falling prey to the log cabin invasion, the piece goes on. But it warns gravel pit complexes in other parts of the country could also fall prey to developers.