CONCERNS are being voiced over a temporary campsite being promoted as a place to stay during the Olympics.
The site at Blunts Farm, near the former Old Foresters Club and Tube station in Theydon Bois is being promoted as having a ‘quiet countryside location’ with ‘luxury hot showers’ and ‘luxury toilets’ on a website set up by the organisers.
The website also claims that campers will have a 15-minute journey to the Olympic park in Stratford.
Bookings can be made between July 25 and August 14 next year and it is understood that about 150 pitches will be available.
The Theydon Bois Action Group is urging villagers to write to Eleanor Laing MP opposing the plans.
In a rallying email to residents, it raises fears that structures such as temporary toilets will not be taken down at the end of the three-week period.
A spokesman said: “How can we be certain that the portable ‘luxury showers, toilets, TV room, bars, secure storage lockers and CCTV’ will be removed after 28 days?”
He added that the fact that temporary buildings had not been removed from the farm after planning permission for a foster care support centre there was refused did not bode well.
The chairman of the Theydon Bois Rural Preservation Society, Peter Newton, said: “It’s a very sensitive spot as far as the village is concerned.
“It’s green belt and at the moment, the railway line is effectively the boundary between the village and the green belt, so any development that occurs on the other side of that in what are now fields is always a concern.
“We understand that they don’t need planning permission for this.
“The society has only just found out about it and we have put a notice on the village website.”
One of the farm’s owners, Phil Newman, said: “We’re allowed to do it for 28 days without planning permission. We went to the council and they said ‘no problem.’
“People will come back to Loughton, Epping and Theydon Bois, go to the pub, maybe have a cup of tea and have some dinner. It’s good for the area.
“Where can these people stay otherwise?”
The Caravan Club withdrew its plans for a temporary 1,300-pitch campsite at hurdler Sally Gunnell’s childhood home in Chigwell in June, after residents banded together in protest.
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