PLANNERS have refused retrospective permission to change a 2.5 hectare field at Dorchester Road, Lytchett Minster into a caravan and camp site.

The application for Papushka Fields is for facilities which have already been in place since March 2021 and included new gates to the site, which ward councillors described as “overbearing and unattractive” in a joint statement to Dorset Council.

Said the statement from ward councillors Alex Brenton, Bill Pipe and David Starr: “Although camp site of this are appearing everywhere they do detract from the open aspect of the Green belt. It is not desirable to have the open ground between the A35 and 351 roads full of tents and caravans and other temporary structures.”

Lytchett Minster Town Council had expressed its concerns about the extra traffic feeding onto the A35, although the Dorset Council highways team raised no objection, subject to enlarging the entrance.

The site is to the east of the Axium Centre and south of the A35 Dorchester Road, with a planning agent arguing that the area is already being used by a number of established holiday site for static caravans and lodges as well as the Farmer Palmer’s family farm attraction close by.

Said the agent: “The applicant has a site license by the Camping and Caravan Club for a maximum of 35 tent pitches and 5 touring caravan pitches for year round use within the application site. In terms of the use of the land it is only when there are tents and caravans in situ that there is any visual impact on the land…limited to late spring and summer months.”

The statement claimed the shower and toilet block and other buildings would not look out of place in the area and, together, the site would bring more spending into the local area.

But despite the case for the site a planning case officer concluded that the site did not fit well into the surrounding Green Belt: “The use and layout does not relate well to this complex of buildings and appears as an isolated tourism use which is largely surrounded by agricultural land and the A35 to the north. The use is not considered to make a positive contribution to a rural settlement, landscape character or enhance biodiversity. No exceptional circumstances have been demonstrated to justify the use and the range of associated structures within the countryside which are cumulatively considered to result in adverse visual impacts and increased traffic movements which detract from intrinsic character and beauty of the rural setting.”