CHALET owners fighting for a 50-week lease at Humberston Fitties have heard that they would need permission from the Government.
As reported, North East Lincolnshire Council is holding a select committee hearing today and Thursday to investigate the terms of the Fitties' leases, following the Fitties Owners Residents' Association Bungalows' (FORAB) campaign to let them stay at the park for 50 weeks rather than 44 weeks of the year.
FORAB see the hearing as a chance to make their voice heard and will give four presentations – including the results of three flood risk assessments carried out by NELC, the Environment Agency and FORAB at the site of the Fitties.
As reported, one of the reasons the Fitties closes for eight weeks during the winter is because the Environment Agency say it is at risk of flooding – although chalet owners disagree.
But the committee at Grimsby Town Hall has today been told by the Environment Agency that they will not support the 50 week occupancy because the flood risk is too high.
This means planning officers, if they wanted to approve the application, would have to go to The Secretary of State for a decision.
The EA's coastal advisor Mark Robinson, said that if a planning application came in to build a holiday park there in this day and age, it would never go ahead.
Jonathan Cadd, of NELC's planning department, added: "We consider a cautioned approach in terms of how we look at flood risk and would be guided by the EA. We would probably recommend refusal."
See tomorrow's Grimsby Telegraph for full coverage of the first day of the hearing.
