Nature needs your support now. Help ensure that Tournerbury Woods, the last remaining wilderness on Hayling Island in Hampshire is not developed to harm nature and damage the heritage of Chichester Harbour.
The owners of the woods built a venue in this important nature reserve a decade ago without first seeking planning permission. To establish the venue they undertook extensive groundworks, removed trees, laid gravel car parks, upgraded farm tracks and erected a large permanent marquee and other structures… see our Tree preservation pages for more information.
The woods are designated for agricultural use only and have the highest level of environmental protection at the national and international level – (Site of Special Scientific Interest, Special Protection Area for birds, Ramsar site as well as being part of the Chichester Harbour National Landscape – formerly Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty).
The owners have been determinedly attempting to gain retrospective planning permission to not only legitimise their existing commercial operation but also to expand their offering to include overnight camping in the woods. See our Development history pages for more information.
The woods offer rare habitats for wildlife including mature woodland that comes down to the foreshore of Chichester harbour. Within the woods is an ancient Iron age fort and a heronry as well as previously undisturbed breeding territory for all manner of wildlife, including threatened species on the Amber and Red lists of concern.
Havant Borough Council issued an Enforcement Notice for the venue site in 2020 requiring it to be closed and the buildings removed. However, after lobbying by the owners in 2022 the Council signed a Non-prosecution Agreement with the owners allowing the site to operate without planning consent until a further planning application was submitted. After the submission of five applications over 8 years, retrospective permission was granted on 15th September 2023 for APP/23/00076.
However, we brought a Judicial Review challenging the Council’s decision to grant retrospective planning permission in 2023. The challenge was successful and the High Court quashed the decision by the Council to grant planning permission on 10th March 2025 as it had behaved unlawfully by failing to consider important submissions from Chichester Harbour Conservancy.
The Council is now required to re-determine this application and you now have the opportunity to comment afresh on this application either through the Planning portal or by writing to the Havant Council Planning Service quoting the application number APP/23/00076 before 24th December 2025.
Please note that the consultation has now closed and the Council is considering submissions.
Meanwhile we should let you know that after our public meeting on 13th January 2024, which many of you attended, the owners of Tournerbury Woods brought a libel action against the group alleging that our questions and comments, particularly about the trees, were defamatory.
We are pleased to let you know that after 14 months under the threat of legal proceedings, the owners decided, when confronted with conclusive evidence, that their action could not proceed. We are now free to share our evidence and the account given by the owners, and we have placed this on this website for you to read.
You now have the opportunity to have your say and we urge you to do so. You may choose to consider the following points when considering your response to this planning application:
- If permission were retrospectively granted for new buildings within a SSSI, this would be the first time in England a council would have overridden the legal protection for our most precious nature reserves.
- There is no legal access to the venue at present as permission to use the track in the planning application over neighbouring land has been denied… so the venue could not begin operation if approved making this application a waste of public money.
- This is a retrospective planning application asking for approval of unauthorised use that has been going on for a decade and we don’t understand why the owners don’t apply for permission first like everyone else.
- The venue is based around a clearing in the woods occupied by a 1000 cubic metre earthwork platform. This platform is not mentioned in the planning application and so not all the development is included as it should be.
- Trees within Tournerbury Woods are covered by a Tree Preservation Order (TPO) and yet many have been lost around the venue area.
- The proposed Visitor Management Strategy could not be supervised by Havant’s enforcement team of three, especially given that this application now includes overnight camping in the woods.
- Out of 24 suppliers to the venue shown on its website only 4 are based on the Island or in the Borough, which means that there is limited economic benefit to the Hayling community in jobs for this site and it adds to the traffic on the bridge in the summer months when it is most congested.
- The low-lying site by the sea is in the most severe flood zone 3 and was flooded on 9th April 2024 with some parts of the site cut off.
- We have been told by the Council that the venue has not paid business rates for the site since it started operation in 2013.
- Notwithstanding attempts by the owners to minimise their sound system, loud cheering and music can be clearly heard by neighbours during events and this leads to massive disturbance to wildlife