Blow for residents in ‘holidays only’ homes

The threat of eviction has been hanging over 130 people at Lakeminster Park, near Beverley, since East Riding Council told them they should not be living there full time.

Planners have now recommended that an application by the owner for permanent residential occupation should be refused at a meeting next Thursday.

The site is outside the development limits of Beverley and Woodmansey and officers say the estate lends an “unacceptable urban” character to the “otherwise open rural landscape”.

Resident Dave Foulstone, who has lived on the site since September 2009, said they felt like “piggy in the middle”.

“Everybody on the site is really anxious about what is going off and they are absolutely fed up,” he said.

“It needs putting to bed, but unfortunately it is out of our hands.”

Many sold up to move into what they thought were permanent homes and paid full council tax, but the council says the properties should be used only for holidays.

Planning permission was given to Flannigan Enterprises Ltd in 2006 for 169 “park homes for holiday use”.

Conditions state that the homes should not be occupied as a “sole or main place of residence” and are for “holiday purposes only”.

However the site licence dated 2008 states: “All park homes shall be used for human habitation all year round and for holiday use only.”

The agent for the applicants Lakeminster Park Ltd argues that the breach is not causing “irremediable” harm, that those involved are mostly retired and have no alternative home, and throwing them out could result in large-scale homelessness that the local authority would then have to sort out.