Controversial plans for a £3.5m holiday lodge development in Bride have been withdrawn.

Planning officers had been recommending refusal of Pure Leisure Group’s application (17/00956/B) to build 55 holiday lodges on part of the Glen Truan Golf Course at Bride.

Concerns were raised at public meetings held last autumn about the potential impact on the environment, given the development’s close proximity to the Ayres nature reserve.

Pure Leisure Group’s plan also involved the conversion of existing farm buildings to create a clubhouse with a restaurant and bar and turning a barn into a pro-shop and changing rooms.

In an 85-page report, planning officer Chris Balmer had recommended that the application be refused on the grounds that it ’does not appear to meet the overriding national need requirement’.

He accepted there would be some benefit to the Manx economy by having a new type of tourist accommodation but that there were concerns that more units would be required, at least 76 to 100, to make them work financially.

His report also highlighted concerns about the design and layout of the lodges and about the lack of detailed information about access or how lighting will impact on the environment and wildlife.

Due to the large amount of interest in the application, the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture had decided it was necessary for the matter to be heard at an extraordinary sitting of the planning committee.

The meeting had been arranged for Tuesday (June 12) at Ramsey Town Hall, starting at 10am. But now it has been confirmed that the Pure Leisure Group has withdrawn its application.

The company, headed by millionaire John Morphet, submitted revised plans for the holiday lodge scheme in January, which included an amended environmental impact assessment.

Mr Morphet had maintained that his luxury log cabin development would be good for tourism, the economy and the Manx exchequer.

He pointed out that before it was a golf course, Glen Truan was a sand and gravel quarry.

But the scheme had prompted much criticism.

A spokesman for the Save the Ayres campaign said the proposal was a ’totally inappropriate development in a totally inappropriate location’.