Following a number of years of planning and consent work undertaken to replace the existing ‘unofficial’ Crowcombe Park Gate car park with a purpose-built replacement, all plans have had to be placed on hold following the tragic death of the join landowner, Anthony Trollope-Bellew following a recent accident.
Whilst work was due to start on this project in Spring 2023, the Crowcombe Estate have been advised that they cannot authorise this to proceed with such major works until probate has been completed. This places the whole scheme in jeopardy as it is anticipated probate will take 18-24 months, after which the initial planning and Commons consent would have to be renewed and a new procurement exercise undertaken. The project has been led by Bill Jenman in the Quantock Landscape Partnership Scheme and formed part of the schemes deliverables; unfortunately as QLPS is a five year Lottery funded project this delay will extend beyond the life of the project meaning both the funding and staffing resource will no longer be available. Friends of Quantock had committed in excess of £20k towards the delivery of the project and additional funding to maintain the car park for an extended period beyond it’s construction. However this only formed part of the total cost.
This is an unfortunate situation following a very tragic accident and we extend our deepest condolences to Annabel Trollope-Bellew, Anthony’s wife, and his family.
The car parking arrangements on the Quantock common are complex due to Dead Woman’s Ditch and Sandy Beds car parks being the only official car parks, both of which are on land owned by Friends of the Quantocks. All remaining car parks are ‘unofficial’ car parks on common land owned by private estates.
We will now work closely with the Quantock Landscape Partnership Scheme and Quantock Hills AONB teams to review all options to improve the car parking provision across the common and will update accordingly.