MALDON Council is opposing a caravan park’s bid to stay open all year round, claiming it doesn’t have the staff to stop people making it their permanent home.

It refused permission for Eastland Meadows Country Park, in East End Road, Bradwell, to open 12 months a year, rather than the current ten. A planning inquiry has been hearing the company’s appeal against the decision Council planning officer David Wallis told the inquiry the change would make it hard for the council to ensure people weren’t living permanently at the park, rather than simply using it for holidays.

Mr Wallis told inspector Paul Jackson: “We feel we would need a full-time person to monitor the site. We are under-resourced.

“As a small authority, it affects what we can can do and what the council can monitor and enforce.

“If one site was allowed to open all year, other caravan sites might want the same and this could potentially increase the population of the district by bet-ween three and four thousand.

Holiday park director James Harvard rejected Mr Wallis; suggestions. He said: “We have nobody who lives on site, period. Everyone has a main residential address elsewhere.

“We are predominately a holiday park looking to expand into new holiday times.”