New Wildheart Animal Sanctuary Facilities Given Green Light

(c) Wildheart Animal Sanctuary

Plans for new facilities at an Isle of Wight tourist attraction have been approved – to house two brown bears.

County Hall approved Lawrence Bates’s application for a multifunction space with a rooftop viewing terrace, bear house and isolation building at the Wildheart Animal Sanctuary on Yaverland Road, Sandown.

The new structures will cater for two European brown bears – Benji and Balu – due to arrive at the sanctuary soon.

It is also hoped the facilities will ‘bring visitors, school children, corporates and communities into the bears’ world’ to share their ‘amazing journey’.

The isolation building will be used for quarantine, health checks and behavioural observation.

An officer report said:

“The proposed development would represent an unusual, but modern and functional design and would represent an investment into the local and wider tourism offer in Sandown.

“The proposal is therefore considered appropriate for this location and is recommended for approval, subject to the conditions as outlined in this report.”

The council attached four conditions, with aims including ensuring ‘appropriate means of surface water drainage’.