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Caravan in Hartland Field

1954 Hartland caravan

What was the use of the government spending money putting up notices warning the public to make inquiries regarding any proposed development before they purchased land, if people did not read them? asked Mr J E Knapman, for Devon County Council, the planning authority, at a local inquiry at Bideford Rural Council offices last week.
Mr R E Godwin, of The Cottage, Higher Clovelly, who was appealing against the refusal of the local planning authority to permit him to station a caravan in a field at Lighthouse Cross, Hartland, admitted he had never seen one of the warning notices. He said he had made no inquiries when he purchased the plot of one third of an acre in the spring, adding ‘I had no idea there were these snags’.
Mr Godwin told the inspector, Mr F W Foster-Turner, who conducted the inquiry, the previous owner had had plans for the construction of a piggery in the field approved by the planning authority. He said in his statement of appeal he had written that he would like to put his caravan in the field possibly with the idea later of a building a piggery.
Cross-examined by Mr J E Knapman, Mr Godwin admitted he was no longer interested in the idea of a piggery. He wanted to put the caravan in the field when he returned from a tour, or perhaps let it or have his friends to stay there or possibly occupy it himself during the summer. He had already had water laid on to the site. A piggery on the plot would be far more unsightly than a caravan, he suggested.
Mr J R Sims, the Northern Divisional Planning Officer, said the plot was at the junction of two roads which carried considerable tourist traffic and one of the roads was the bus route to Hartland. The hedge around the plot did not prevent the site being seen from the road. Mr Godwin: ‘You could only see a caravan from the top of a double-decker bus’.
Mr Sims went on to say that the area in which the site lay was shown in the County development plan as one of special landscape value. The existing caravan sites in the area of Clovelly were more than sufficient to meet the demand, which was only seasonal. To allow isolated caravans to be stationed indiscriminately in the area would spoil the special nature and charm of the rural countryside.
Mr Knapman, in conclusion, pointed out that a survey carried out in fifteen of the forty-seven districts of the county last year revealed an increase of 240 per cent, in the number of holiday units – tents, caravans, chalets, etc. – since the previous survey made in 1949-50. ‘We reckon there will be some 500 acres used for camping and caravan sites in this county by next season’ he added.
After closing the inquiry, the inspector visited the site.

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