Dear Editor,

I`m clearly one of many people who are still incredulous at the recent revelations regarding the future of the Chase Hotel.

A prime site within the heart of the beautiful Wye Valley with so much further potential. Indeed, minimum requirement of a modern leisure and spa facility, with proper upgrade of accomodation would, in the scheme of things, appear more than obvious. Any self respecting hotelier group would no doubt ensure this happened and quickly.

However, this should have happened long ago within the tenure of the current owners who it would seem have cynically held the Chase as a landbank, captive from its rich potential over a very long period.We are told the hotel is uneconomic to continue. Conveniently, likely to be true if it has been starved of targeted investment. I’ve not seen any evidence of attempts to sell the hotel to a forward looking hotel group. Of course not. That would be the best future for the hotel, its staff and Ross. I wonder why it is not currently on the market?

Those readers with a long memory will recall a far earlier attempt to develop this treasured Ross greenspace by installing a Waitrose supermarket at the bottom of the parkland. Chaseside residents will especially recall that episode. That would certainly have been the thin end of the wedge.

To even the most casual observer, it would appear a fairly breathtaking attempt to totally exploit and asset strip a much loved and needed Ross landmark which, Mayor Harry Bramer and many others have descrbed as an absolutely clear ‘Community Asset’. I think the move to firmly establish this position is worthy of wide support.

I hope last week’s news that the proposed development is outside the local plan will prove to have some enduring significance. As if, given the large number of houses approved and about to appear on the eastern edge of Ross, we suddenly need this central area choked with development and vehicles purely for local developers’ gain, absolutely defies belief. Because we don’t need this. Nor, quite obviously, does the Chase Hotel.

Roger Hanson, Ross-on-Wye