Cirencester Park: Visitors from outside town to be charged entry fee

Residents in Cirencester will retain free access to the park, the estate has said

A plan to install electronic gates to stop tourists getting free access to a Grade I listed estate will go ahead.

Cirencester Park is a "nationally important historic landscape", according to the Bathurst family, which has owned and run it since 1695.

Three electronic gates with card readers will be installed so people from outside the Gloucestershire town can be charged to enter.

Cotswold District Council formally approved the changes on Monday.

The gates will be be built at the park's Cecily Gate, Windsor Walk Gate and another wooden gate at The Barton.

The estate has said town residents will retain free access, a benefit they have enjoyed since the 17th Century.

'Invests in landscape'

It said fees charged for other visitors will help sustain the park for future generations and will help to pay for a visitor centre and toilets.

In a post on the park's Facebook page last month it said it would introduce a Community Passholder Scheme from next spring.

It said the Bathurst family "takes enormous pleasure in welcoming visitors to their beautiful parkland and invests significantly in the maintenance and restoration" of the landscape.

People who pay to belong to a new membership scheme will be able to enjoy the park during extended opening hours during the summer months, the statement said.