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A Herefordshire mobile home park run by a firm owned by millionaire Alfie Best has been told that use of part of it is not lawful.

Essex-based Wyldecrest Parks Management sought two years ago to establish that an area on the southeast edge of Saltmarshe Castle Caravan Park north of Bromyard, where mobile homes are already stationed, was lawfully part of the park.

This was on the basis that, with a football pitch, it had already been “in recreational use ancillary to the caravan site use” continuously for over ten years, rendering it immune from enforcement action.

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The firm provided 13 signed statutory declarations as well as a series of aerial images and other photographs to back up its claim.

Herefordshire Council planning officer Tracey Meachen has now said the caravan park “has had a complicated history”, with “numerous applications [for certificates of lawfulness] to regularise its expansion”, most recently an attempt which the council refused and which was then dismissed at appeal in early 2022.

A representation on the current bid from Saltmarshe Castle Park Residents Association said they “greatly value the natural beauty that surrounds us, and are concerned about the potential of unplanned development of the park”, listing concerns over parking, construction traffic, lack of security and fire readiness, undocumented piping and cabling, and “unreliable” water supply.

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But Ms Meachen said the points made by the residents “would not be applicable to this type of application”.

As for the evidence submitted by Wyldecrest, she judged there were “significant gaps in the aerial imagery”, the photographic evidence was “not dated”, while the signed declarations gave “insufficient dated and clear evidence”.

It had not therefore been shown that the land in question had been used continuously as a caravan site for the ten-year period, she concluded.

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The application for a certificate of lawfulness was refused.

Wyldecrest could again appeal the council’s decision, while if this is not pursued the council has the option of enforcement action to have the mobile homes on the disputed area, now thought to number around 30, removed.

The council was asked if it intends to do this.