Dinosaur park bites back at objectors

Wednesday 12 October 2016

The owner of Tamba Park has hit back at claims that his ambitious expansion plans will ruin the parishes of St Mary and St Lawrence.

Jonathan Ruff has posted a copy of a letter on Facebook that has been sent out to Islanders living near the dinosaur park inviting them to meet up at the weekend to put together letters of objection to the Planning department.

The letter invites them to meet up at a house in St Lawrence on Sunday afternoon to discuss how his plans for an ice-rink, bowling alley and go-kart track will affect them.

The letter suggests Mr Ruff's plans for "an enormous solid structure on the La Rue de la Frontier side" will create more traffic in the area with around 500 cars a day coming from all directions, that it will be noisy and that if he gets the go-ahead to develop his greenhouses into houses then it will set a precedent for others living nearby to do the same with theirs.

In response, Mr Ruff commented:

"We have no issue with what the letter is intended to do which is to encourage people to get together to fight for what they believe in, freely discussing their concerns. We just want to ensure that people, when they do this, make sure they have the correct facts and information."

In his Facebook posting, that has been shared more than 200 times and has got hundreds of comments, Mr Ruff said: "I am building an enormous solid structure? There already is an enormous solid structure on the site, it’s not a pretty little glass house it’s a huge industrial glass house! Which consists of over 200,000 sqft of concrete, 5,000 sqft of offices, a polystyrene making facility, boiler rooms etc, what I am doing is reducing the structures by over 50% and replacing part of one of the glass houses with a structure of exactly the same size in height as it is now and then cladding it with trees and plants making it fit in with countryside! What’s there now is an eye sore!"

He goes on to say: "I would not create something if I thought it was going to ruin somewhere, I think we need to remember I am not building on a field but on an area already covered by a huge structure with a concrete base if anything I am bettering the area as I am reducing the mass of the structure adding hundreds of trees and creating fields."

He has also hit back at the claims it will be noisy, saying he doesn't expect the outside area to get any busier and that all the new activities will be indoors.

Like his dinosaurs, Mr Ruff could have a huge fight on his hands to keep his dreams alive though as his neighbour has pointed out in the letter..."Residents near the proposed dog kennel in St Mary recently all came together and worked as a team and succeeded in getting that planning application refused. Strength in numbers and organisation is key.".

The Tamba Park plans can be seen here.