JOHN FOWLER Holidays has asked Cornwall Council for permission to change the use of some of its land at Widemouth Bay Caravan Park in Bude to allow static caravans instead of touring vans (PA21/10166).

The 50-acre site was granted planning permission back in 1979.

It offers a wide range of facilities including a swimming pool, outdoor activities and indoor entertainment. The site provides multiple types of accommodation including static caravans, motorhome and touring caravan pitches, safari tent, camping pod and camping pitches and farmhouse accommodation.

The company has now applied for the removal of condition four on an area of land to enable static caravans to be sited in place of touring caravans. It wants to either let holidaymakers put their caravans permanently on the land for use as holiday homes or to provide its own stationary caravans for customers to rent. Another area of the side was given the go-ahead for static caravans back in 1991.

A planning statement says: “The proposal will enable the caravan park to provide accommodation that more closely meets their customers’ expectations, as well as the significantly increased demand post-COVID for staying in self-catering holiday accommodation.

“It will also enable the owner to continue to operate and invest in other environmental upgrades and improvements within the site.” It added: “It is essential for the site to offer an extended range of high quality, modern, self-catering static caravan units to meet customer demand. This would also help to boost occupation during the out-of-season months,” and concluded “the business currently employs 56 staff. As well as safeguarding these jobs and ensuring that a greater proportion of them can be year-round, it is estimated that the development will generate an additional 95 jobs both during the construction and operational phases of development. It will also help to boost tourism spend within the wider local economy especially during the out-of-season months.”

The planning application follows on from a certificate of lawfulness for existing use of the development issued on 9 August 2021 which confirmed the land has been continuously occupied in breach of conditions 3, 5 and six for over ten years.

These conditions stated that no caravan or tent should be on site for over three weeks each year; that the site only be used between mid-May and mid-September each year and that an area should be reserved solely for tents.