PLANS for a “complex and sprawling” expansion of a south Pembrokeshire holiday park, which has attracted hundreds of objections, are expected to be refused next week.

The application for the works at Heritage Park, Pleasant Valley, is to be considered at the July 25 meeting of the county council’s planning committee.

It includes the installation of 48 bases for holiday lodges, a spa facility, holiday apartments, a café and cycle hire, an equestrian stables, a manège and associated office, main park office, car and cycle parking, residential garages, landscaping, access, retaining walls, foul and surface water drainage, and related infrastructure and engineering works.

The plans, submitted by Heritage Leisure Development (Wales) Ltd, are recommended for refusal including “by reason of the proposed bases for holiday lodges being outside of a settlement and the holiday apartments not being within or well-related to a town, service centre or service village”.

A report for planners says 245 objections have been received, raising concerns including the effect on the character of the village, the effect on wildlife, noise and light pollution, a loss of trees, and spoiling views and reducing the value of property.

Stepaside & Pleasant Valley Residents’ Group – formed to object to an earlier 2019 application – has also raised a 38-page objection, with a long list of concerns, describing the current application as “a reincarnation of an earlier application, which first alerted the residents of Stepaside, Pleasant Valley and the surrounding villages of the applicant’s plans to implement a complex and sprawling development which would take over the whole valley”.

The 2019 application – which had been recommended for refusal – was later withdrawn.

Amroth Community Council has also objected -albeit referring to a previously withdrawn application, as has Kilgetty/Begelly Community Council, with a long list of concerns.

Rural campaign group the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales (CPRW) has also objected, and supported the submission of the Stepaside and Pleasant Valley Residents’ Group.

The application, made through agents Lichfields, says: “The site provides an opportunity to deliver a high-quality tourist offer whilst also preserving and enhancing the ecological and heritage surroundings and is therefore considered to be acceptable in terms of design and access principles.”

The application itself consists of six parts: access roads and retaining walls; 31 bases for holiday lodges and associated works; a holiday equestrian facility with on-site accommodation which includes a manege, reception building, 12 horse stable block, 18 space car park and bases for three holiday lodges; the redevelopment of the former Stepaside Inn into a leisure spa facility and four holiday apartments (in addition to the existing four residential apartments) including an upgraded entrance road; bases for a further 14 holiday accommodation pods; and a holiday lodge structure for a cafe, cycle hire and information point with associated infrastructure and landscaping, as well as a 21-space car park.