OPPOSITION is mounting in Lowgate to an extension to a caravan park which is already twice the size of the community.

Residents have united oppose an application to vary conditions, more than 30 years after plans were first submitted to extend the Heathergate Country Park, in the hamlet which is just two miles from Hexham.

The plan, which was first given the go-ahead by the former Tynedale District Council in 1982, and would involve the current site of 42 static holiday homes being extended to accommodate another 39 pitches by Wakefield-based Blue Sky Resorts.

But residents argue that the community, which has just 20 homes, would undergo a population explosion if the plans ever went ahead, due to caravan owners being allowed to live at the site for up to 11 months of the year.

Resident John Seagrave said: “Permission seems to have been granted, without any consultation, by the council based on a highly dubious document resurrecting a 34-year-old request for planning consent that has long since lapsed.”

John Dent, another resident, added: “The thought of prefabricated mobile homes outnumbering houses by a ratio of more than four to one fills us with dread. We live here because of the peace and tranquillity of this beautiful area and the proposed development would destroy our environment.

“We are prepared to fight for as hard and as long as it takes to ensure this doesn’t materialise and have already taken legal advice.”

In 2008, residents objected to a previous application for the site by Blue Sky Resorts, which was later withdrawn. The deadline for comments on the latest application is today.