The way planning works for Alton is different to Thorpe and CWoA. Alton falls under a general development order so making changes is easier. There is little point in a consultation if your planning application is going to be wildly different. You show off what the client is wanting to build. Something that the architects are happy with and the engineers have shown is possible. To go making large changes now would be costly and time wasting. Sometimes they are needed due to feedback from the consultations or the engineers finding an issue but the client shouldn't be making changes from here.
The site they have decided to use is small but if they wanted a bigger area they could have easily have had one. If you located the station on the slammer site they would have had vastly more area to work with and they wouldn't need to go demolishing any of the old town buildings. Angle the lift hill right and that toilet block can even be saved. It seems like such the obvious choice for trying to fit a hyper in there that im very surprised they haven't done it.
Making changes is even easier if you haven't even submitted an application at all yet... Surely?
Can you please explain why the clients 'shouldn't be making changes?' It's their project, their budget and if they want to make changes, they damn well can! Perhaps I interpreted that wrong, and you meant that the client is 'unlikely to make changes that aren't deemed necessary,' In which case I'd agree. But you and I don't know what criteria they have set that could force changes.
It could be, (although extremely extremely unlikely so don't get your hopes up) that as part of this consultation, Thorpe are looking to gauge the reaction to the layout from park goers too... It is an incredibly big investment!*
(*I wish I didn't feel compelled to include this bit, as it's extremely unlikely, but I included it, as nobody can possibly know for sure, without any doubt, that it's not the case!!!)
Anyway... I'm not sure what the debate is here?
Nobody is suggesting they absolutely 'will' make changes... Or even that changes are 'likely!' I Don't know about anyone else, but I'm suggesting that...
Firstly, we don't even have access to detailed plans, just a basic overhead, and some artist's impressions to go with it... The elements on the artist's impressions could be way off the elements in the actual layout design, as they are exactly that, artist's impressions. If you're expecting every bank angle to be accurate and the curvature of every hill to be spot on, then by all means, correct me... But I've yet to see a single project, ever, anywhere, look exactly like it's artist's impressions when it's built.
Secondly, that the plans aren't final! That is, at this stage, fact! It cannot be argued with, these plans, until approved, cannot be considered final. Changes can be, and historically have been, made. Both before planning applications are submitted and after. Again I reiterate, I'm not saying that will happen, I'm saying it 'can.' And until that is no longer the case, these plans are not final.
Hell, the project may never be built! It may never even be submitted for planning approval!
