A PLAN to add residential use of a caravan at a Horrabridge park has been lodged with planners.

Barton Park Estates has submitted a plan to Dartmoor National Park Planning Authority for the following alteration to its number of caravans from nine residential, 18 holiday, 30 touring caravans and up to 16 chalets to ten residential, 18 holiday, 30 touring and up to 16 chalets.

The plan is the latest in a series of moves at Devon Oaks Holiday Park at Bedford Bridge, also known as Magpie Bridge, to increase the number of residential units or a type of caravan.

The plans have sometimes sparked opposition from Horrabridge residents worried the park could gradually grow as a mini-housing estate with increasing numbers of caravans becoming fully residential, as opposed to holiday units.Earlier this year, in March, plans to expand the number of residential units from nine to 18 and holiday units from 18 to 36, were rejected by Dartmoor National Park Authority planners, after strong opposition by Horrabridge Parish Council.

The council said the earlier move was a case of ‘overdevelopment’ — the caravans looked like bungalows and were intended to be lived in all year.Locals are also concerned that any increase in residents on-site would lead to extra traffic from the busy A386 accessing the park, near Bedford Bridge, on a sharp bend. In opposing the earlier plan, residents also suggested that there was no established safe path for people to walk from the park regularly, if they lived there long term, along the A386. Therefore, it was not suitable for residents.

This year’s rejection came after an earlier attempt by the owners for up to 80 caravans to be sited there for full-time residents, was rejected on appeal at the High Court by the Government’s Planning Inspectorate in 2020.

Supporters of increasing residential capacity say the village needs the boost to its economy from extra residents.