Snoasis day visitors could pay £9

DAY visitors to SnOasis will have to pay at least £9 each to get on the site, the public inquiry into the application heard today.

Planning expert Erica Whettingsteel told the inquiry the entry fee would be aimed at ensuring people did not visit the site for shopping or to visit the cinema in competition with Ipswich town centre.

She said the entrance fee would be based on the cost of all day parking in the centre of Ipswich. The cost of other attractions on the site such as the indoor ski slope would take account of this basic entrance fee.

Barrister William Upton, representing the opposition to the proposed new leisure village suggested that many people would be unable to afford the cost of visiting SnOasis.

It has been suggested that it will cost about £25 to spend three hours using the artificial ski slope there.

However, inspector John Gray suggested the cost of leisure activities was a matter for individuals.

He said: “It costs £45 to watch Chelsea, and it costs me £24 to watch my team Sunderland. This is a matter that individuals will have to decide for themselves.”

Ms Whettingsteel did not think the presence of the landfill site so near the proposed leisure village would have a major impact on visitors.

She said: “I have visited the Viridor site and I have never noticed the normal smell or littering you get, it is a very well run site.”

She said most houses in Britain were built within 250 metres of an existing or former landfill site.

The developers behind SnOasis, Onslow Suffolk, are including an ice hockey centre as part of the scheme and Ms Whettingsteel expected the centre to have its own team competing against other teams across the country.

She said SnOasis would be a centre of excellence catering for 14 winter sports, and it was necessary to combine them all on a single location.