An elderly couple are among a group of residents at a caravan park forced to leave their homes which they say they’d been obliviously living in illegally for two decades. Doug Davis and partner Pam Donovan lived happily in their caravan at Porthkerry leisure park near Barry for 21 years, even paying council tax on the standard caravan.
But during the first coronavirus lockdown in the summer of 2020 the Welsh Government asked the caravan owners to leave the site and return to their homes, only then realising numerous people - around 40 according to ex-park owner Phil Edwards - had been living on the site for 10 months of the year in caravans only permitted for second home use after selling their homes. The site is now under the new ownership of Vale Holiday Parks who took it over this year on the provision that Mr Edwards would end the issue of residents living there permanently.
Across the UK it is illegal to live on a holiday park in a caravan permanently without a primary residence elsewhere. The caravan should be for recreation and holiday use only, and does not require council tax payment.
