Estate asks to expand caravan and camping tourist site

THE OWNERS of a 15,000-acre estate are asking a National Park for permission to expand their caravan and camping site near the Coast to Coast footpath, even though their proposal fails to meet a key planning requirement.

The Mulgrave Estate, near Whitby, wants to expand its tourism business operation at Lythe, where a caravan and camping site was first established in 1958.

In a planning application lodged with the North York Moors National Park Authority, the estate, which is owned by Constantine Edmund Walter Phipps, the fifth Marquess of Normanby, proposed to add 10 caravan pitches and 10 camping pitches to the 28 pitches and four camping pods at the site.

Agents for the estate said extending camping opportunities in the park would increase its health and well-being benefits, which they say is among the leading ambitions among the authority’s members.

However, the park authority’s policy states plans to expand existing caravan, camping and chalet sites will be supported where the site is located within an established woodland, which “provides a setting for the development which will enable it to be accommodated within the wider landscape without harming the park’s special qualities”.

In a bid to overcome this issue, the estate’s application states the site is already screened by mature trees, and under the proposed expansion there would be further screening and planting.

The application adds walkers heading towards Lythe will see reinforced hedge planting and that the site “can barely be seen from the bridleway” due to hedges.

The application states while the proposal would bring camping and caravanning activity closer to the Lythe conservation area, there is no built development planned that would adversely affect its current character.

The estate’s agents said: “The proposal is simple and low key. Care has been taken to ensure that there is a low impact on the landscape itself in terms of visual appearance, there will be little disturbance to the surface of the field and lighting will be kept to