RESIDENTS of Humberston Fitties are urging council bosses to hand responsibility for the site over to them – and end the dispute about how long they can stay on the site for good.
As reported, a select committee formed by North East Lincolnshire Council to assess whether residents should be able to stay in their chalets for 50 weeks of the year, instead of the current 44, has recommended the authority looks into selling off the site.
Other recommendations include continuing to enforce the two-month closed period and looking into how to make the site a tourist attraction.
It has led residents to confirm their interest in taking over the Fitties and turning it into a hotspot for visitors.
Paul Harwood, chairman of Fitties Owners Residents' Association Bungalows (Forab), said it would be impossible to attract visitors to the conservation area throughout the year when residents are not on site for two months.
He said: "The select committee has totally ignored our case that to produce a working heritage site that would be the envy of the whole of the east coast, it is necessary for residents to actually be present.
"Without that, the site is just a sterile collection of buildings.
"The residents bring it to life, they are its beating heart.
"The committee has failed to grasp that the increased residency request is a pre-requisite of improving the tourism on offer.
"Rather than concentrate on residency conditions and control measures, the committee should have concentrated on vision. We believe a golden opportunity is being missed for Cleethorpes as a whole."
As reported, the select committee's recommendations – which were formed after a landmark two-day hearing in October – will be presented to the policy, performance and resources scrutiny panel on Wednesday.
And residents maintain the recommendation to turf them off the site for two months of the year is "ludicrous" and based on false information.
Mr Harwood claims the decision to do so is based solely on the Environment Agency's view that the site is prone to flooding – despite a separate assessment commission by residents showing otherwise.
He added: "We showed at the hearing that there is so much disagreement between experts and agencies regarding flood risk that it is just not safe to confidently rely on the predications of any of them.
"If the committee was simply going to agree with the Environment Agency all along then the whole hearing was always going to be a total waste of everyone's time and energy."
Pat Taylor, who has had a chalet on the site for six years, added: "It would be so much better if control of the site was given to the people who live there.
"It makes me ill every year thinking about leaving and I it's so expensive to do. I just wish they would see sense and let us stay."
Keep reading your Grimsby Telegraph for the outcome of Wednesday's meeting.
