Agenda item

To consider a report (copy attached) regarding the ongoing regulation of holiday caravan parks within the county and how the council is monitoring and enforcing possible breaches thereon.

11.00 a.m. – 11.35 a.m.

The Lead Member for Highways, Planning and Sustainable Travel, introduced the report (previously circulated) to update members about the on-going regulation of holiday caravan parks within the county and how the council was monitoring and enforcing possible breaches thereon.

The Head of Planning and Public Protection and the Development Manager (Planning and Public Protection) informed members that the initial work relating to the Project had commenced around four to five years previously and had been based on anecdotal evidence relating to alleged breaches of planning and licensing conditions on some of the county’s holiday parks.  At that time both members and officers had concerns in relation to the perception that some individuals were living as permanent residents in holiday caravans, and whilst they were not paying Council Tax they were accessing Council Services, as well as other public services i.e. health services in the county.

With a view to corroborating the anecdotal evidence, enquiries were instigated with a number of Council services to determine whether caravan occupiers were accessing Council run services as was suspected.  The enquiries did confirm that some ‘holiday’ caravan occupiers were actually accessing various services.  Following this initial piece of work the Council’s Business, Improvement and Modernisation (BIM) Service was approached with a request to undertake further work to help co-ordinate Council databases in order to make it easier for Enforcement Officers to gather evidence of recent access to services by caravan dwellers.  BIM developed a monitoring tool specifically for this purpose – a demonstration of the tool’s evidence base and its capabilities was given to members at the meeting.  This monitoring tool had the capacity to drill down to Member Area Group (MAG), Council ward, and individual caravan detail, which was extremely useful to Enforcement Officers when undertaking their work.  Information recorded in the tool was updated on a monthly basis.  The confidential document at Appendix 1 to the report illustrated the tool’s effectiveness in reducing the number of services delivered to holiday caravan dwellers since 2015.  This reduction had been achieved through effective partnership working with the British Holiday and Home Park Association (BHHPA) and other partners.  With its limited resources of 1 Planning Compliance Officer and 0.5 of a Licensing Officer the Council would have encountered difficulties in undertaking compliance and enforcement work in relation to the 6,000 static and 400 touring caravan pitches in the county.  Partnership working was therefore crucial if compliance work was to succeed.  Through working with the BHHPA it soon became evident that the root cause of caravan dwellers accessing Council services from ‘holiday caravans’ was that a handful of large caravans sites had either been unable to effectively manage their site records or had disregarded the planning and licensing conditions granted for their sites. The BHHPA’s assistance had been crucial in assisting the Council to reach the position it was at currently.  As a result of this work the number of holiday caravan dwellers accessing Council services had reduced, caravan site owners were now more willing to co-operate with the Council and take responsibility for managing their sites in line with the conditions granted.  One pending prosecution for breach of planning conditions had also resulted from the work involved with the Project.

Officers were now confident, on the basis of the work undertaken to date and the strong working relationship that existed between officers and BHHPA officials, that compliance work could be undertaken on a ‘business as usual basis’ from now on.

Responding to members’ questions officers:

·       outlined how in their opinion a situation had developed over an extended period of time which had led to ‘holidaymakers’ by stealth becoming ‘residents’.  The closer working relationships forged between Council departments as part of this project, as well as the links established with external partners, should safeguard against a similar situation developing in future;

·       confirmed that holiday caravans were not liable for Council Tax, consequently people ‘residing’ in them were not included in the population assessment which was the basis for the Council’s annual Revenue Support Grant (RSG) settlement;

·       confirmed that the Council had ceased issuing bus passes to individuals that resided in holiday caravans sites since 2015;

·       advised that long-term caravan occupation, be it on a large site or an individual plot, should in future be easily detected through the use of the monitoring tool.  If at any time a caravan resident attempted to access a service, or register a holiday caravan as a postal address, it would trigger a compliance enquiry.  Any attempt to register a caravan for the purpose of receiving mail would generate a land and property gazetteer entry.  Information held on the land and property gazetteer was available to a number of services, including the Health Service;

·       advised that holiday caravan residents who had access to their caravan for specific periods of the year i.e. 10 months should always have a ‘main’ residence address – an address at which they were registered for Council Tax, Electoral Roll purposes etc.;

·       confirmed that the Council’s Social Services’ Department did occasionally use holiday caravans for the purpose of homing vulnerable people on a very short term basis, usually in emergency situations.  The numbers were very low, usually no more than about six individuals.  The Council closely monitored the situation to ensure that the individuals concerned were moved to more suitable accommodation, one which better suited their needs, as swiftly as possible;

·       outlined Planning and Licensing Officers’ rights of entry to caravan sites, emphasising that if the licensed operator/manager refused entry to regulatory officers the Council could, within 24 hours, access the site accompanied by the Police;

·       confirmed that generally it was the site operator or manager, the named licensee, who was liable for ensuring that the site and its users conformed with any planning and licensing conditions granted.  It was extremely rare for the owner of an individual caravan to be liable;

·       advised that in future the Council would consider attaching stricter clauses when permitting planning permission and granting licences for caravan sites e.g. including a requirement for the licence holder to provide Council Tax registration details for all caravan owners on an annual basis;

·       advised that if the Council suspected that people were using a caravan as a permanent residence, officers would approach the site licence holder who would then be responsible for approaching the caravan resident to request evidence that it was not their permanent home.  If evidence was not provided the onus was on the licence holder to take any necessary action to ensure that all planning and licensing conditions were complied with in order to avoid the Council taking enforcement action.  This could result in individuals or families presenting themselves to the Council as homeless, which in turn could potentially place pressures on the Social Services Department;

·       confirmed that it was crucial for park owners/operators to stringently manage their sites to make sure that caravans were being used for holiday purposes only and not being misused i.e. owners sub-letting caravans to vulnerable individuals, because as licence holders they were liable for any breach of conditions and resulting penalties ; and

·       advised that if a person presented themselves as ‘homeless’ as a result of being evicted from a ‘holiday’ caravan they would need to satisfy the ‘local connections test’ before the Council would become liable for providing them with housing.  The responsibility for providing housing would lie with the local authority within whose area they had their last registered permanent address.

Prior to concluding the discussion members registered concerns in respect of whether there were any vulnerable people residing on caravan sites in the county of whom the Council was unaware due to the fact that they had not attempted to apply for a service.  Concerns were also raised in relation to whether individual caravans or sheds in rural areas of the county were actually being used for residential purposes.  In response to these concerns officers requested members to report any concerns or suspicions which came to their attention to officers at the earliest possible convenience to enable them to be investigated.

The Committee congratulated officers on the extensive work undertaken in relation to this Project over an extended period of time.  It was of the view that it represented a worthwhile piece of scrutiny work and an excellent example of effective cross-service and partnership working which benefited the Council, protected vulnerable people and supported economic development by ensuring that holiday caravan sites were used for their intended purpose.  Members:

RESOLVED: subject to the above observations to -

(i)              support and commend the data management and monitoring systems set up as part of the Project;

(ii)             agree for officers of the Planning and Public Protection Service to continue to investigate potential unauthorised residential occupation and to regulate parks accordingly; and

(iii)            agree that the regulation work should now continue on a ‘business as usual’ basis without the need for any further referral to Scrutiny.