Protestors gamble on chance to scupper £40 million hotel and casino plans
Xscape boss vents his frustration at casino plan delays
Protestors are gambling on a last throw of the dice next week to scupper
the controversial 40million plan for a city centre hotel and casino.
Milton Keynes Council development control committee meets on Monday to take a second look at the scheme after the council shelved a decision giving the go-ahead in April.
It has to consider whether the revised scheme removes councillors' worries on adequacy of parking, the likely impact of the complex with its shops and restaurant on other centre businesses and the height of the fivestar hotel.
Xscape – which is behind the project – has lopped almost 10 metres off
the hotel making it shorter than the existing entertainment centre.
But a local action group of residents and businessmen has sprung up, intent on lobbying councillors at Monday's meeting and overturning what
it dubs a "monster development".
The group calling itself Xplain has put out a campaign leaflet claiming
the hotel – which it puts at nearly 50 metres – will be a "massive blot on the landscape of our city."
Together with night-and-day gambling it would create "more traffic, crime, noise, fumes, speeding and danger to pedestrians."
It claims hotel guests and gamblers would compete with residents for spaces in yet another multi-storey carpark and that the complex design
is "totally wrong" for the edge of Campbell Park.
Xscape boss PY Gerbeau is frustrated by the delay and uncertainty in
Milton Keynes over the scheme.
"Is anyone making a decision in the city," asked the entrepreneur, recalling that he had already brought here the most popular leisure attraction in the country.
"We have cities begging us to come. We have been bending over backwards
a million times to say, 'Is this what you want?' We have gone through this process four times now – we need someone who can make a decision here. We must have spent half-a-million pounds on changing our plans.
"We will be bringing in a top operator here. We are going to create
between 150 to 200 jobs with a 40 million scheme."
>> This week councillors voted to review building design codes after a
debate in which councillors criticised structures like Xscape, Airkix and The Hub saying some CMK architecture was reminiscent of the former
Soviet Union. For full report see Citizen First on Tuesday.
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Weather for Milton Keynes
Thursday 24 May 2012
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