West Sussex mobile home park residents left facing 'lagoons of foul-smelling sewage'

Now the owners of Petty Char Court Mobile Home Park near Billingshurst have been fined more than £26,000 and ordered to pay a further £16,000 in costs.

Horsham District Council prosecuted park owners Petty Char Limited after they failed to comply with two compliance notices to improve their sewage disposal systems and their surface water drainage schemes for the site, in addition to other breaches of their site licence.

The council said in a statement: “These licences are issued to ensure owners of caravan parks provide appropriate living standards for park residents.

“The failure to comply with the two notices left the residents of Petty Char Court on the Coneyhurst Road east of Billingshurst with sewage collecting in lagoons on site and foul smelling floods on the adjacent A272, particularly in the warmer weather.

“Petty Char Limited pleaded guilty to the offences at Crawley Magistrates Court in November 2023 and agreed at this time to complete works to rectify the problems. These works have still not been completed and the site remains in an unsatisfactory state.

“Petty Char was fined the sum of £26,667 and had to pay a victim surcharge of £10,667 and the council’s costs in full of £6,077.61. The defendant’s early guilty plea was taken into consideration when sentencing together with all the details of the case.”

Horsham District Council director of communities Paul Anderson added: “I was extremely disturbed to hear of these breaches which are completely unacceptable. This council will not accept poor standards on caravan sites, especially park home sites like Petty Char Court which are the permanent homes of residents and need to meet the required health and safety standards to ensure that they provide a pleasant and safe living environment.

“We gave the owners extensive professional advice and guidance to rectify this situation. This successful prosecution should serve as a warning to similar businesses and send out a positive message that as a council we will not accept this level of poor management and will take necessary action.

“We will continue to closely monitor all such matters district-wide.”