A HOLIDAY park has been told it must remove glamping pods from its site after putting them in place...despite not having planning permission.

West Mersea Holiday Park installed ten glamorous mini log cabins on its site at the end of 2019, but was handed an enforcement notice by Colchester Council in December last year.

The paperwork stated the park’s bosses must demolish, dismantle or remove the ten buildings used as camping pods and all associated works to ground level.

All materials and debris from the land affected also has to be removed, while the land needs to be restored to its former condition.

Following a visit from the planning inspector in August, Park Holidays, which runs the site, was told on Friday it now had just one month to comply.

The pods, which were rated eight out of ten on holiday hunting site Booking.com, had proved extremely popular with visitors who described them as “the perfect getaway”.

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However, concerns the site didn’t comply with national planning policy, which seeks to steer new development away from areas at the highest risk of flooding, were too prevalent for the inspector to overlook.

The Colchester Borough Strategic Flood Risk Assessment outlined a number of areas of the site which fall into various flood zones, with one section defined as land where “water has to flow or be stored in times of flood”.

West Mersea resident John Akker, who has campaigned against over-development on the island said: “There is a lot of feeling on the island about caravan sites and their expansion. Caravan parks are reducing touring pitches and replacing them with caravans and now caravan pods.

“The inspector’s report is very significant because in his findings he refers to global warming and the possibility of sea flooding.”

A spokesman for Park Holidays said: “We will continue working with West Mersea Town Council to try and ensure we can offer the volume and variety of top-quality accommodation which is required to meet the high levels of demand from families for holidays.”