War has broken out on the wild open spaces of Dartmoor. On one side stands Peter de Savary, a flamboyant hotelier and property developer who says his business is going to bring much-needed revenue to the moor’s towns and villages. Squaring up on the other is the Dartmoor Preservation Association (DPA), an environmental pressure group with 2,500 members, which argues that Dartmoor’s rugged beauty is under threat from the entrepreneur.
De Savary’s involvement with Dartmoor national park began last year when he sold Skibo Castle — his Scottish hotel-club, made famous by Madonna’s wedding there in 2000 — and announced he was redeveloping the Manor House, a dreary crenellated hotel built in 1907 near Moretonhampstead.
De Savary’s investment amounts to much more than a simple lick of paint and general repairs. His main renovation cost £23m, on top of the £7m he paid for the hotel itself, and involved 250 workers toiling for a year to finish it by this Easter, when it opened for business under its new name — Bovey Castle.
The entrepreneur’s newly revamped Dartmoor property has an art deco-style dining room, vast bedroom suites, lounges of leather sofas and huge Victorian gothic fireplaces. In the grounds there is a championship- standard golf course, fly-fishing, clay shooting and archery facilities, falconry displays and a new spa and fitness centre. There is also an application for an equestrian centre.
But the DPA accuses him of planning to turn Dartmoor into “a tacky theme park”.
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“We have heard about Littlecote House, where de Savary had jousting knights in the grounds, and we worry the same thing will happen here,” says John Bainbridge, the DPA’s chief executive.
Another of the association’s gripes concerns the 22 lodges that de Savary is building in the grounds. To rent one of the three-bed granite retreats, you become a member of Bovey Castle Club. With the most expensive founder membership, you pay a refundable deposit of £750,000, dues of £10,000 a year and £100 a day to stay in the lodge. For that , you can use the facilities of the main house and the staff attend to you as a resident. Alternatively, the lodges can be rented for £1,000 a night. This sort of deal, common in America, but rare in Britain, is adding to concerns that yet more homes are being built that locals cannot afford to buy. According to local agents Fowlers, based in the town of Chagford, 75% of property sales are already made to new arrivals to the area.
Bainbridge says: “The national park jumps on local people who put up B&B signs without permission or who have a roof elevation a few inches too high, but de Savary gets away with building these structures, which will be quite out of keeping with their surroundings.
“In the past year he has built things, such as bridges over the river and thatched huts, without permission from the national park on 11 separate occasions. But the authorities are too in awe of him to do anything about it, and he rides roughshod over them. We have written to him twice and he ignores us. He’s now advertising ‘adventure driving’ in his brochures. If that takes place on the moor, he’ll be breaking the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985.”
These are not opinions that go down well with de Savary. “I’d like to speak to these people face to face,” he says. “but they are cowards who are frightened to come here and see what Bovey Castle is like. They have said I’m planning to wreck Dartmoor, and they are wrong. I was brought up in the West Country. I have known this house all my life and I have seen it deteriorate to the point of no return. Now I have saved it. Not for money — I could have made more from investments. I have rescued this house because it deserves to be restored in a luxurious way. Had it not been for me, it would have been ruined, as some sort of home for drug addicts or alcoholics. Now it’s tastefully decorated, environmentally sound, and it does nothing but good for the community. I employ 200 people here and contribute substantially to the economy of the local towns.”
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Not all the locals are against him. “Peter de Savary is doing work of the highest quality — developing existing buildings without harming the landscape, which is in accordance with the authority’s policies,” says Graham Wall, director of planning and community at Dartmoor national park authority. “It’s true there have been a number of breaches of planning control, and in two cases we have served notices on him to stop his building work. But we have since received retrospective planning applications, and they are being dealt with.”
De Savary has developed, among other business interests, Littlecote House in Wiltshire and Land’s End in Cornwall. He also owns two clubs in America, one in the Bahamas, one in London, and is planning clubs in Tuscany and the South of France.
But the DPA is unimpressed with his track record.
“A lot of people depend for their livelihood on Dartmoor remaining untouched,” says Bainbridge. “Ten million people come to the national park every year, and 3m of these are walkers.
“These people won’t visit and people won’t buy property here if the area is commercialised.”
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So will de Savary’s plans put off prospective buyers? “I’m planning nothing that will spoil Dartmoor,” he says. “In the future I may buy art galleries, pubs, small hotels, bookshops or other businesses which I think I can improve, but they’ll have to be of value to the local community.”