LAWRENNY – FORMER MANSION SITE (CANDIDATE SITE 046)

BACKGROUND

Lawrenny is already a holiday destination both for long term holiday homers (and caravaners) and day trippers to the village and to Lawrenny Quay.

The Lawrenny Estate, the business that has overseen the farm and housing developments in and around the village, has for many years been developing a strategy to diversify its business and bring redundant assets, such as the site and grounds of the former family home, back in to use. Extensive details have already been deposited covering the planning history and feasibilities to date that are relevant to the candidate site. It is widely agreed that this site is a unique asset for and .

“It is clear this could be a great asset for tourism in Wales, somewhere people would come to from all over the world to experience so many of the wonderful things Wales has to offer.” – Margaret Llewellyn, Chair of Visit Wales

There is clearly enormous potential to work with the unique features of this hidden corner of Pembrokeshire to attract low volume, high value tourism, all year round. Over the last half Century, the village has been restored from a dilapidated hamlet into a thriving community. The surrounding farm and woodland has been managed and tended to build extensive natural habitats, a nurtured landscape and networks of footpaths that create great amenity for visitors. The farm dairy business is now organic.

As a virtual peninsula surrounded by the tidal waters of the Cleddau, Lawrenny is also an excellent gateway to some of the most protected and peaceful waterways in Europe, making it a perfect point of transition in the discovery of a little-known hinterland of Pembrokeshire’s National Park. Likewise, it is an increasingly popular destination for water borne explorers of the and upper estuary.

SUMMARY OF BUSINESS PLAN

The business plan for the next three to five years covering candidate site 046, the former Mansion Site in Lawrenny, comprises three complimentary but separate elements.

1. Anchor Festivals – including Lawrenny Fish Festival, The Big Retreat Wales and Seafair Haven 2. Pop Up events – small concerts, outdoor cinema, seminars, scout camps, weddings etc 3. Accommodation – high end, unique and innovative accommodation units

OUR OBJECTIVES

1. To create a financially sustainable model for running high profile events and providing high quality visitor accommodation in a unique location. 2. To create new jobs and economic activity, both through the creation of a core delivery team, and connecting local businesses to new markets. 3. To contribute to the national strategy to boost tourism earning by 10% by attracting new, higher value tourists and visitors from the UK, Europe and beyond. 4. To extend the visitor season outside the traditional summer months.

MANAGEMENT TEAM

Site owner, David Lort-Phillips has been behind the long term strategic planning on the site for more than 50 years. With his eldest son, Owen, he has developed an efficient modern farming operation on the former estate land around the site, while protecting and nurturing the site itself (where he grew up) with a sense of purpose and a hope it might serve as an inspirational location for future generations.

Younger son Adrian has been managing the careful development of village properties and oversaw the highly-praised plans for an ambitious project that will see the replacement of the old Home Farm site within the village with 33 new homes.

In 2015, Adrian’s wife Amber started a small scale high-quality retreats business bringing people from around the UK to Pembrokeshire for wellness, fitness and health breaks. This year, along with a team of experienced event planners, she staged the inaugural Big Retreat Wales, a festival that took the simple concept of retreats to the next level – a long weekend of music, wellbeing, great food and companionship. Supported by Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, it was a great success and extremely well reviewed.

David’s eldest, Liza has joined the team this year, bringing considerable experience in brand development and sustainability for both the private and NGO sectors. Her work has taken her to China, Africa and Latin America, designing and delivering projects with positive social and environmental impacts.

Event specialist Louise Burdett, who has recently moved to Pembrokeshire from the south east of England, is also on the team. She project managed the staging of the opening day of Pembrokeshire Fish Week (supported by Pembrokeshire County Council.) This was highly praised, particularly for its use of the river to bring visitors from Pembroke Dock and Milford Haven.

While David remains the overall skipper of this venture to bring new purpose to the Old Mansion site, the team of family members and professional consultants, supported closely by Pembrokeshire County Council and Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, have already put in considerable work, and proved the viability of much that they are planning to do. 1. ANCHOR FESTIVALS

Exciting events that put Pembrokeshire Coast National Park on the map for high quality, short festivals

As explained above, 2017 has already seen two outstanding festivals held on the old castle terrace in the centre of the Old Mansion site. The Pembrokeshire Fish Week opening day and the Big Retreat Wales were both delivered on limited budgets, short timescales and with basic infrastructure in place.

One of the key elements of festivals’ success was the location. Festival goers were transported by the stunning views, the sense of peace and the feeling of history and community the site presented. At least one more festival will be held there this year, along a theme which we hope to develop further in the coming years, focusing on innovation and discovery. The festival will be aimed at school age students but will bring together people sharing a common passion for learning and discovery.

Over the next 3 years the plan will be to stage up to six anchor festivals each year. We intend to improve facilities on site, including access and parking and to develop WCs and showers that can serve any events on the site. Electricity will have to be brought to the site as well. Some improvement to the roads will have to be made and access to parking areas may require new track being laid. The event campsite (used for the Big Retreat) will need further work to improve amenities.

The appetite for events on the site is impressive. Partners, including celebrity chefs, stall holders, local businesses and our backers (including PCC and PCNPA) have expressed huge enthusiasm for what has already started this year and we are getting a lot of pull from them to develop the festivals further. The Big Retreat Wales will be targeting a maximum of 1200 participants in 2018 making it an extremely viable proposition.

2. POP UP EVENTS

With facilities in place, The Old Mansion Site will be perfect for events from weddings to seminars and conferences

With no building in place on the foundations of the old castle, the site is a perfect blank canvas for any event, large or small. We will be marketing the site for weddings, seminars and conferences and developing our offering to be able to cater for almost any standard of event. There has already been considerable interest in the site for parties and weddings. The revenues from these events will ensure a steady income to further improve the facilities and to part fund permanent facilities on site.

The development of (interim) permanent WCs and showers on site will enable scouts and other groups to use the site for weekend events, developing the business model over the next 3 years prior to developing wider permanent accommodation and buildings on site.

3. Accommodation

The provision of accommodation facilities on site will seek to follow the principles of development as directed within the former site assessments, developing the lands to integrate any development within the former park grounds above the river, and within the carefully created woodland settings. The provision of on site accommodation will further enhance the opportunities for developing on site events as well as create a viable tourism destination capable of supporting events throughout the year. This would create strong offering both for individual holiday stays and as accommodation serving events on the central site.

OVERALL AMENITY

Considerable work is required to repair old walls, drives and park land and to make a start restoring the old Walled Gardens. Strong revenues will allow the business to justify this restoration work for the first time in a century, where improvements will create a greater sense of place and a finer appreciation of the history or the site and surrounding parkland.

Radiating out from the hub we will put in a network of paths and tracks accessing the surrounding countryside, giving visitors the feel of complete freedom in the beauty and secluded safety of the farm and woodlands. A new access track to the water below the Castle Site would create the seamless connection with the river for kayakers, boaters and sailors.

Small clearings would be created where visitors could go and picnic, play or relax. They could also be configured to host activities like forest learning, bushcraft etc for scouts and school groups.

The investment in high quality accommodation, a well set up central site to accommodate events and festivals, networks of interconnecting paths giving access to the countryside and surrounding waters, will all ensure the Old Mansion Site provides a compelling destination for visitors from near and far.

The investment will greatly benefit local businesses servicing the site and its events, and create high quality jobs in a rural location that struggles to retain a permanent working-age population.