Litton Property Group has withdrawn its planning appeal for the £25m re-development of their 10-acre riverside, mixed-use scheme in Bakewell.

The appeal was lodged in response to the Peak District National Park Authority's (PDNPA) rejection of the company's planning application in May of this year. The company's latest application - the second in 10 years to be rejected - incorporated significant concessions made to the plans in the hope of securing consent.

However, despite the company's legal advisers being confident that the appeal would have been successful, the directors felt that the revised scheme was no longer viable following the concessions that had been made to the master plan.

In withdrawing the appeal Litton Property Group acknowledges the hard work and support of the PDNPA's planning officers, who were in favour of the scheme throughout and who recommended the scheme for approval, as Mark Twelves, the company's MD, explains: "In addition to the planning officers' vocal support, we also received private assurances that our scheme would be accepted. However, when it came to the vote the majority of the Members [of the planning committee] completely ignored the planning officers' recommendation and rejected our scheme. 

"Although there was a small group of local objectors, we firmly believe that our proposals were supported by the site's occupiers, most of the town and the wider community."

The company had no financial imperative to re-develop the site given the profitability of the business park, but after a decade in planning the directors also felt that there should be no further delay in making improvements to and investing in the site. 

One planning consent is already in place for a further phase of the scheme and the company now has plans to bring forward various developments and manage the site more "organically" - served by the existing access route along Holme Lane and Lumford.

The company remains committed to building a new bridge and access point from the A6 (Ashford Rd), which already has planning approval, but the timing for its construction is now uncertain.