by Chris Malone
Caravan owners at Throney Bay Park in Canvey Island are to be made to pay council tax after an investigation revealed that they were living there all year round.
A total of 292 homes on the site will now be subject to the levy, with the remainder of more than 800 caravans still falling under the park’s business rates, according to the Echo.
The newspaper launched a campaign to have the Valuation Office Agency conduct a review of the site to establish whether some residents were avoiding their responsibilities.
Castle Point councillor for economic regeneration Norman Smith told the Echo that it was “only right” that permanent residents should be asked to contribute.
“They are taking from the borough as much as everyone else in terms of services, so why should they not contribute?” he asked.
The ruling means the owners of the 292 caravans in question will have to pay £1,046 per year after their homes were classed as band-A for council tax.
In other news, the Craven Herald recently reported that a landscape expert has suggested that neither caravans, nor the earth mounds planned to screen them from view, would fit in with the look of the environment at Long Preston.
