Puy du Fou NEWS

 

You may well have read the recent letter sent to Elmsbrook residents by Puy du Fou (PdF) with an update and newsletter on their park application. You can read more on their consultation website (www.puydufouconsultation.co.uk), check out their application on the Cherwell District Council planning portal, and there has also been some media coverage, including by BBC News here.

 

As part of their series of public consultations, representatives from your Elmsbrook Community Organisation (ECO) recently met with PdF. We raised a number of concerns that residents have identified, including regarding environmental impact, sustainability, electricity, and water, but the three most significant topics which stood out are as follows.

 

PdF have indicated that the only light pollution is likely to be a “sky glow” from their live shows after dark, which could be visible from local villages. With these shows set to be staged in the north-west corner of the site and over 1km from Elmsbrook, this impact should be minimal.

 

PdF aim to provide authentic historical settings and therefore to shield each of their villages and live show locations from the others and also from the external modern-day environment, through use of bunding and planting. They have also surveyed their shows in other countries for noise levels, and indicate these should not be any louder than existing background noise in the area from the M40. We challenged this given that noise from the M40 is typically lower in the evenings, and also the potential burst-like nature of sounds that may be used, e.g., simulated gunfire recordings, and asserted our expectation that noise levels be maintained within PdF’s targeted limits. We also raised concerns about noise from traffic leaving the site late in the evening. 

 

While supportive of their promotions of sustainable transport, we challenged PdF on achieving 50% of visitors arriving by public transport and the potential impact to traffic, including on the B4100, if this target is not reached. PdF have considered other planning applications in the area in their modelling, but mitigations for any traffic issues could take significant time to fix and are not within PdF’s direct influence. PdF responded that any such impacts will affect their subsequent phases of expansion, and that they are therefore leveraging relationships with council and government departments as well as other groups including National Highways. We will continue to press them on this topic, given that local intersections such as the Baynards Green (A43/B4100) roundabout are already significantly in excess of capacity during peak hours, and existing concerns with the limited service operated by the 500 bus route.