AN application to allow an open space on the Organford Manor site to be used for extra caravans has been refused by Dorset Council.

The site owners, Organford Manor Country Park Ltd, had asked for a legal ruling to recognise that the positioning of five caravans on what they described as ‘an amenity area’, was permissible and would not require formal planning consent.

Several objectors claimed that the extra caravans would add to traffic on the site and would put water supplies, which comes from a borehole, under additional pressure.

One described the area proposed for the caravans as “an important community amenity space” which was valued by residents and to put caravans on it would not only lead to its loss but add to the overall density of homes on the site.

The land being put forward for the extra caravans is a rectangular plot of maintained grassland measuring. 21m by 124m to the south of the existing caravan site, which the site owners claimed should be considered to already be part of the caravan site.

But Dorset Council officers decided that a 2021 certificate stated that the plot of land, being proposed for the five caravans, was designated as an amenity area to the caravan site.

“The certificate does not mean that the lawful use of the land is as a caravan site. This is specified in the certificate reasoning which identifies the amenity use as being distinctly separate to the use of the caravan site,” said an officer’s report.

“It is concluded that the amenity area and the caravan site form separate planning units, and the lawful use of the application site is for an amenity area only and not a caravan site. The siting of five caravans on the amenity area would constitute a material change in the amenity area use.. Therefore, a certificate of lawfulness should not be issued, and planning permission is required for the siting of any caravans on the amenity area.”