The country’s largest holiday park operator wants to replace its remaining touring caravan pitches at Skipsea with statics as holidaymakers seek out more up-market accommodation.

The five-acre site at Skipsea currently has 90 pitches for camper vans, motorhomes, touring caravans and tents, with two toilet and shower blocks for visitors using the site.

A planning application has been submitted to East Riding Council to replace the pitches with 45 static holiday caravans.

If approved the change will bring the total number of statics on the site to 802.

Houses and static caravans on the coastline at Skipsea, East Riding of Yorkshire Picture date: Wednesday January 22, 2020. Credit: Owen Humphreys/PA Wire

Parkdean Resorts sells over 500,000 holidays and short breaks per year.

Agents on behalf of Parkdean Resorts state: “The applicant, as the operator of 66 holiday parks across Great Britain, has identified a trend towards holidaymakers increasingly preferring to stay in modern high-quality static caravans with a range of modern amenities compared with touring caravans/tents.”

Skipsea is on East Yorkshire's rapidly eroding coastline, but the plans say even those put up closest to the coast “will still remain a very safe distance of some 260 to 280m away from the cliff edge”.

At a rate of 1.25 metres of land being lost to the sea a year, and including a 30m buffer zone, the statics should be safe for over 180 years.

The applicants say benefits include a drop in traffic and a boost for the local economy by creating more year-round jobs

Holiday park operator wants to replace touring pitches with statics at Skipsea