Pevensey Bay caravan park Bay View wins bid to extend its season

On Thursday (October 27), a Wealden District Council planning committee gave in-principle approval to alter the conditions limiting the opening season of the Bay View Holiday Park in Pevensey Bay.

Currently, the park, in Old Martello Road, is required to close down in January and February each year. The new restriction would mean the park will only be required to close down for two weeks at the end of February.

While approved in principle, the new conditions will only go through if the Environment Agency confirms it is content with the arrangements. This was because the government body had said it was content with 11 months in its response to the application and councillors were unclear if this was a typo or a hard limit on what it considered to be acceptable.

The original restriction had been put in place as part of plans approved in 2020, which allowed the park to replace its touring caravan pitches with static caravans. This effectively meant the park became a solely static caravan based business.

As the caravan park straddles the planning boundary between Wealden and Eastbourne Borough, these plans were submitted to both authorities.

At the time, Eastbourne planners had concerns around the caravans becoming permanent homes, so imposed a condition requiring the two-month closure each year in an effort to discourage this use.

While Wealden had been content with a one-month closure initially, the council altered its conditions to be in line with its neighbour.

Several committee members were concerned therefore about altering the council’s conditions to be different from its neighbouring authority, fearing the move could result in difficulties in enforcement.

This concern was exacerbated by the fact that Eastbourne Borough Council had not responded when approached for a view by Wealden.

In light of this, several councillors argued the scheme should be deferred until Eastbourne was reconsulted. Officers said this would be an unreasonable decision, however.

For further information see application reference WD/2021/2480/MFA on the Wealden District Council website.