Shift your caravans, hotel told (From Evesham Journal)

Shift your caravans, hotel told

5:00pm Saturday 11th February 2012 in News By Sarah Taylor

A HOTEL using caravans to house its staff without the correct planning permission will be forced to remove them.

Evesham’s Riverside Hotel is accused of breaching planning permission by storing caravans on its car park and allowing its staff to stay in them, as well as having a metal storage container and an advertisement hoarding on site.

A report to Wychavon’s planning committee said consent was granted in 2008 for a landing stage and the applicant was told that caravans used for workers building it would not need planning permission.

Caravans were moved onto the land in November 2009, but there was evidence they were used by hotel workers as staff accommodation.

In May 2010, officers from Wychavon revisited the site and an area of the car park had been fenced off for storing caravans.

One of the caravans was used by a hotel employee for occasional overnight stays. There was also a green metal storage container and a large amount of rubbish. Another caravan was placed on the car park area in December.

The report said the landowner had failed to submit a planning application or remove the caravans from the land, the condition of which had deteriorated, with an “unacceptable”

level of rubbish and scrap items, although they had informed the council of their intention to remove the caravans by May.

Members of the planning committee granted an enforcement notice to remove all unauthorised items and restore the land to grass or car park.