A former director of a Ceredigion golf club has spoken of his anger after being informed campervans are no longer allowed to stay overnight in one of its car parks.
Borth & Ynyslas Golf Club own a patch of land near the seafront at Ynyslas which has long been used by cars and campervans, staying overnight.
The club applied for lawful use in 2016 after the gravelly patch of land had been used for decades for parking and overnight stays.
Ceredigion County Council granted car park use in April 2020, at the height of the first lockdown, but did not grant campervan use.
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Dafydd Raw-Rees, a former councillor and former director of the golf club, before stepping down earlier this year, said they had not been made aware of the decision and only realized campervans were not allowed to use the site, which brings in around £20,000 to the club’s coffers each year, when they were told earlier this year.
Because the decision was made in April 2020, the right to appeal has now lapsed.
Mr Raw-Rees said: “Campevans help keep the club running and without that income, we are financially threatened.
“This decision is depriving the club of an income and members will have to pay more in membership, which could threaten our membership of CASC (community amateur sports clubs).
“We don’t recall receiving notification of the decision in 2020.
“The council says we did not provide evidence that campervans had been using the site for a number of years, but we sent written statements from people stating that they had been using the car park for years.”
Ceredigion spokesperson said in response: “They applied for use of the site as a car park for cars and other vehicles and campervans, dormobiles, mobile homes for overnight and longer stays throughout the year.
“The information provided was fairly limited and the certificate was granted primarily on basis of their information and aerial photographs dating back to 2000.
“A certificate was granted on the balance of probability that the site had been used as a car park for a continuous period of 10 years or more. However, the application was lacking evidence to state that overnight use had occurred, and therefore the Certificate was amended with a description of the use of the land as a car park only.”
The council spokesperson did say however in response to the claim the club did not receive the notice: “Given this information we will investigate the matter further and consider whether planning enforcement action is expedient or not.”