OWNERS of Eastwood Park have said they will have to sell some of its land to pay for the estate’s future.
Management at the 200-acre estate have revealed plans for a multi-million pound redevelopment of the site, which include a new conference centre with accommodation and state-of-the-art medical training facilities.
However, bosses at the popular wedding venue say that some of the estate will have to be sold to pay for the necessary upgrade.
John Thatcher, chief executive at Eastwood Park, said: "We have to do this. We cannot carry on much longer doing this high-tech work in this environment.
"At the moment we are using facilities that were made for other purposes. We have garages and buildings that have been turned into laboratories and workshops.
"If we can’t upgrade here we would have to look to move to another site.
"This is going to cost a significant sum of money, which we cannot resource from our own budget. We are going to have to raise the money through enabling developments."
Two parcels of land that have been identified to be sold are an old military campsite to the back of the estate behind the Eastwood Park nursery and a corner of land south of Falfield village near the A38.
Mr Thatcher said the estate was now in open dialogue with the Falfield community about the development of these two areas, which could include housing or a supported living complex.
Eastwood Park used to be a private estate until it was bought by the Home Office in the 1930s.
In the last 40 years it has provided specialist technical healthcare and engineering management training, as well as hosting weddings and conferences.
Mr Thatcher said: "What the business is looking to do is to go forward and to do that we need to have the right specialist technical facilities and resources.
"We also want to restore some of the former glory of the estate. We need to demolish some of the older temporary buildings that were put up 50 years ago.
"We want to replace the conference centre that is currently an annexe to the main house but make its design more sympathetic to the house."
Mike Pirie, chairman of Falfield Parish Council, said: "The proposals have been received very well by the community.
"We think the estate are very positive in the way they are approaching this."
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