Expansion plan for currently vacant caravan park by Alton Towers approved
A caravan park near Alton Towers is set to be brought back into use after expansion plans were ruled to be ‘lawful development’.
Billy Ray Sales Limited applied for a lawful development certificate for the proposed stationing of 44 static caravans at The Cross Inn Caravan Park, in Ash Tree Road, Cauldon Low, for holiday purposes.
Planning permission was originally granted for 25 touring caravans and six static caravans on the site in 1995.
Officers at Staffordshire Moorlands District Council have now ruled that the increase in the number of caravans at the park would not amount to a ‘material change of use’, meaning it can go ahead.
The council received one objection from a member of the public, who said that 44 caravans ‘seems incredibly excessive’ for the site.
The letter of objection stated: “There will be noise and light impact. Also impact to the nature and also attractiveness of the countryside. I strongly object.”
According to the planning officers’ report, compliance with the original plan for the site was not a condition of the planning permission, meaning ‘there is nothing to say that the site has to be laid out in a particular way or that numbers be limited’.
The report said that the site was used as a caravan park up to 2020, and while it is currently vacant, it is not considered to have been abandoned.
