Pevensey Bay holiday park plans to return to committee for decision

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

The application had already been considered by the committee at a meeting in November, but was deferred as councillors 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.

The application comes as part of wider plans to convert the park into an exclusively static caravan business . 

This is 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, has already approved its part of the proposals, allowing for the removal of 41 touring pitches to be replaced by 30 new static caravans.

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.