Northumberland caravan park expansion plans refused by council
Plans to expand a caravan park have been refused due to concerns about the impact on the landscape.
The application for 64 static caravans at Coquet View Leisure Park in Warkworth has been turned down by county council planners.
The proposed site, currently an agricultural field, previously had planning permission for 124 caravans but it was never developed.
Applicant Tom Hill had said the reduced number of caravans in the new proposal reflected new planning and more sensitive environmental requirements, with the site deliberately chosen to minimise visual impact.
He also calculated the development would generate in the region of £1.6 million in direct visitor expenditure annually with around £937,000 spent off-site within the surrounding local economy.
However, concerns were raised by Warkworth Parish Council, the Northumberland Coast National Landscape and the Environment Agency.
There were also five objections from local residents, while highways and ecology officers wanted more information.
Senior planning officer Jon Sharp, delegating refusal, reported: “Officers consider that the positive effects of the proposed development have been overstated and that the impacts over the short to medium term have not been given sufficient weight. It would take longer than the short term for the visual effects of the development to be reduced effectively (into the medium term at the very least), given the time taken for the mitigation planting to establish itself.”
He noted that a critical threshold for development in National Landscapes is whether it constitutes ‘major development’, which should be refused except in exceptional circumstances.
"The definition of ‘major’ is a matter of planning judgement and is not explicitly defined in policy, however it is reasonable to conclude that a development of 64 static caravans and associated infrastructure in open countryside... amounts to major development for the purposes of its impacts upon the National Landscape.
"Visitor numbers, in particular, place considerable pressure on the key components of the National Landscape's special qualities. Without a careful, sustainable management approach, conflict could easily result.
“The siting of 64 caravans, with the inevitable associated activity, parking and other paraphernalia, would result in an unacceptable incursion of built development into the relatively unspoilt surroundings.”