Pevensey Bay holiday park can replace touring pitches with static caravans

On Tuesday (December 15), Eastbourne Borough Council planners approved proposals to replace touring caravan pitches with static caravans at the Bay View Holiday Park in Old Martello Road.

The application comes as part of wider plans to convert the park into an exclusively static caravan business, which are somewhat complicated as the holiday park sits on the Eastbourne/Wealden planning boundary and falls into the jurisdiction of both authorities as a result. 

Wealden District Council, which is responsible for the majority of the site, had already approved its part of the proposals, allowing for the removal of 41 touring pitches to be replaced by 30 new static caravans.

The application had already been considered by Eastbourne councillors at a meeting in November, but was deferred as members had concerns around the loss of touring caravan pitches and the potential for the holiday park to become an “almost full time residential site”.

As a result of these concerns, councillors chose to defer their decision in order to ask the applicant to reconsider keeping some of the touring caravan pitches and to bring in a longer closure period each year. 

While the applicant agreed to extend the closure period (from one month to two), they declined to retain any of the touring caravan pitches and the proposals are the same in all other respects.

Some councillors felt the applicant had not gone far enough, however.

Jane Lamb (Con, Meads) said: “I was hoping for a little bit more than that in the deferral we made.

“There are two points; the months of occupancy have only been reduced by one month and the proportion of pitches and the balance between  static and touring has not been addressed and there is no provision for touring caravans or campervans at all.”

Cllr Lamb said she was also very concerned that the loss of pitches could lead to more people parking campervans along the seafront – an issue she said was of particular concern in her ward.

This concern was shared by others on the committee, but officers warned it would be speculative and did not give grounds for refusal.

Committee chairman Jim Murrary (Lib Dem) said: “Officers are saying they don’t believe we can blame any extra campervan [parking] on this particular site.

“What tends to happen is, people are trying save themselves a few quid by not parking on the camping sites and parking on the road. If they’re going to be that type of person then they’re going to be that type of person. 

“The people who want to use a campsite to park are going to find another campsite to park, so we can’t really blame extra campervans on this particular unit.”

Councillors remained concerned around the potential for the site to become a largely residential site, rather than holiday accommodation. But councillors were told it would go beyond their powers to strictly control its use beyond the conditions which had already been proposed.

Following further debate the application was approved with four votes in favour, two against and one abstaining. 

Across the whole site, the park currently has 20 static caravans, 94 pitches for touring caravans and 114 camping pitches. 

With planning permission from both councils, the park would be able to replace all of this with 91 static caravans, 41 of which would fall within the Eastbourne Borough planning boundary.

For further information on the proposals see application reference 200180 on the Eastbourne Borough Council planning website.