RESIDENTS attempting to gain formal status of residential accommodation at a 'holiday park' in Christchurch will find out if their ordeal is over at a planning meeting on Thursday.

Homeowners at Tall Trees Park, at Matchams Lane, are trying to remove two elements from the existing site conditions, which have been in place since 2007.

The residents have been fighting for months to have their properties formally recognised as residential units, whilst they face being thrown out of their homes.

At present, chalet or caravan owners can only occupy their homes for 10 months of the year. If consent is granted, users of the park will be able to stay there all year round.

The plans seek to overturn the conditions set out from the application in 2007, which set out the limitations preventing residents from using their chalet or caravan as their main residence and using their home for permanent human habitation.

As previously reported by the Daily Echo, residents at the home received enforcement letters from Christchurch Borough Council advising them that the homes they were living in were meant for holiday-use only and therefore were not permitted to be lived in as a permanent home.

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Residents were alarmed by this, arguing they had been paying full band A council tax rather than the reduced holiday home rate.

The application to remove the conditions for the park, which is owned by Royale Parks Christchurch Ltd, goes before Christchurch Borough Council's planning committee on Thursday (July 20).

A statement written by the residents of Tall Trees claims the impact is equally, if not less, impactful to the Dorset Heathlands with permanent residents on the site compared to short term holiday visitors.

Referring to the Planning Inspectorate's decision over an appeal at Organford, Poole - which granted the appeal - the statement says:

"The Inspector determined that, “whilst I accept that permanent residents of the appeal site may visit the designated sites for activities such as walking, exercising dogs, mountain biking over the whole of the year on a regular basis, these are also activities that could be undertaken by people on holiday. The cumulative impacts of these activities would be the same whether undertaken by permanent residents in the area or holiday visitors”.

"The Inspector concludes in paragraph 40 that, “the change of use of the static caravans from holiday use to permanent residential use does not amount to the making of a material change of use that requires planning permission”."

Summarising their case, the statement goes on to say: "Natural England view the holiday use as having the same impact upon the heathlands as an all–year round residential use – and as the supplemental statement shows, the actual impact from a holiday use would be more intensive and therefore more harmful."

Issues at Tall Trees have been regularly reported in the Echo, including the planning enforcement row, an investigation into former owners mis-selling homes and the site's change of ownership.