A controversial application for the reinstatement of caravans on a floodplain of the Forth at Cornton has been turned down on appeal.
Beechtree Wright Limited had applied for a certificate of lawful use or development for Cornton Caravan Park, which had been refused by Stirling Council in February this year.
It was the second certificate of lawfulness application for the site to be rejected by the local authority, who took the view that the site had been abandoned.
A previous application for a certificate of lawfulness, submitted by Liberty Durant in February 2020 to site 55 static holiday caravans at Beech Tree Caravan Park (aka Cornton Caravan Site), was turned down in April 2020. Stirling Council on that occasion pointed out it had not been proved ‘on the balance of probability that the alleged use of the site as a caravan park was subsisting on 13 February 2020 when the application was made’.
An appeal against the latest council decision to refuse was dismissed by a Scottish Government Reporter earlier this month.
Last summer nearby residents in Westhaugh had expressed anger when work to clear the site was carried out which saw smoke being blown across roads and houses in the area. SFRS had attended the area over a number of days.
Scottish Government Reporter Paul Cackette visited the Cornton site last month during the latest appeal process. In his determination, issued on August 1, he states that Stirling Council’s refusal of the recent application had been ‘well founded’.
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Former landowners had been granted planning permission in 1974 for siting up to 42 caravans on the site ‘time limited to 10 years’ and consent required that once the duration of the permission lapsed “the caravans shall be removed from the site and the site cleared to the satisfaction of the Local Planning Authority”.
Use as a caravan park however continued until 2007 and there was evidence suggesting that there were up to 55 caravans on site at times.
Mr Cackette pointed out that while the site ‘remains capable of being put to use as a caravan park to an extent broadly of the scale or order of the pre-existing use, consistent with the pre-existing planning consent or other lawful use prior and up to 2007’, the site had been ‘put to no alternative planning use in the period since.’
He added that the period of non-use is extensive and, up to the date of application, runs for some 14 years, pointing out: ‘This can only be interpreted as a strong indicator of abandonment.’
The Reporter emphasised that the burden of proof was not on the council to establish that the site is abandoned, but on the appellants (Beechtree Wright) to establish on the balance of probabilities that it is not.
In reaching a decision four tests had to be considered; the physical condition of the site; the period of non-use; any other use in the intervening period, and the intentions of the owners.
Mr Cackette said: ‘I am satisfied that the appellants have established that the first test (physical condition of the site) and third test (any other use in intervening period) are met’ adding: ‘However, the period of non-use (the second test) is extensive and, up to the date of application, runs for some 14 years. This can only be interpreted as a strong indicator of abandonment.
‘Ascertaining the intentions of the owners from time to time, but especially at the stage of cessation of use in 2007 (the fourth test), in support of the appeal is problematic for the appellants. They were not the owners then, but the test still requires to be applied and met. The burden of proof lies with them.
‘The current intentions of the appellants (after re-acquisition of the site in December 2020) “for the sole purpose of resuming the use as a caravan park” are of little value in determining the intentions of the owners in the relevant period prior to then.’
The Reporter continued that there is ‘no evidence from the time of cessation of use in 2007 pointing unambiguously towards that cessation being temporary’ and ‘no clear evidence by way of an act that indicates that resumption of the use will take place or is intended’ and the fourth test therefore ‘based on the intentions of the owners is not met in showing to the requisite standard that cessation of use in 2007 was temporary.’
Dismissing the application. he concluded: ‘Balancing these factors together and in the round, I conclude that use of the site as a caravan park had, by the date of the application, been abandoned’.
