A bid to allow retirees to stay in their park homes all year round has been refused, despite claims its residents were “victims of some serious misselling”.

Occupants of Beverley Park on the Isle of Sheppey say they bought the properties on the understanding they could live there on a permanent basis.

In fact they only had permission for 10-month residencies at the site, in Warden Road, Eastchurch.

As part of a long battle for the legal right to stay year-round, their self-made resident action group requested retrospective planning permission from Swale council themselves.

They sought permission for the change of use from a holiday park of 10 months occupancy for the siting of 21 residential retirement park homes for use for 12 months.

However, earlier this month, this request was refused.

Holiday parks on the Island hold 10-month residencies as the council says it “allows relief to local residents from tourism noise, disturbance and other amenity concerns for two months of the year.”

But, residents at Beverley Park argue they are not disruptive tourists.

The siting of their homes on the park took place several years ago and they are now occupied on a year-round basis as the primary and sole residences of the majority of the occupants, all of whom pay council tax and are aged between 75 and 97.

Beverley Park was originally a caravan park with chalets and caravans and was granted 10 months of holiday use with a planning application in 2011.

However, in their application statement, residents say that they believed Beverley Park was not for holiday use and they say this was made very clear to each of the residents by the owner at the time of purchase.

KentOnline was unable to contact the seller and ex-owner for comment.

The statement continues to say that in 2015, Beverley Park took on a different look when the caravans and chalets were replaced with residential park homes, these residences were purchased as lifetime homes made with the promise [from the then owner of the park] that a positive application had been made and planning was imminent.

Recently the park was bought by Cosgrove Leisure Parks, which had no involvement with the alleged misselling.

However, the holiday park company Cosgrove Leisure Parks did not reply to KentOnline’s requests for comment.

Wendy Benton, 75, has lived on the site for seven years with her husband, 77-year-old Kenneth, and their cat Jesse.

They moved to Eastchurch from Thamesmead upon their retirement.

The mum-of-five said: “We bought our home in December 2016 and moved on here in March 2017.

“What we didn't realise was that the planning decision to make it 12 months had been denied."

At the planning meeting, a spokesperson for the Beverley Park Action Group explained why year-long residency should be allowed at the site.

He said: “A refusal would have significant adverse personal and financial implications for the occupants of the homes on the site.

“This is a system that is working and the applicants are asking to legitimise the situation that has already developed through no fault of their own, who may well have been the victims of some serious miselling in the first place.

“If you chuck them out for two months they’ve got nowhere else to go, it is just going to place more emphasis and more hardship on other council issues.”

Wendy explained she and her neighbours have been paying council tax, voluntarily, for the properties since April 2022.

She said: “We felt if we were to be believed and taken seriously about everything we were fighting we had to be absolutely legal.

“So we started paying our council tax, and everything like our banks, driving licences, doctors, everything has our Beverley Park address on, we’re even on the electoral roll.”

But a legal aid at the meeting explained: “Just because the residents pay 12 months council tax the council doesn’t have an obligation to give them planning permission.”

Councillors expressed their concern for the residents but acknowledged their current living predicament did go against the borough’s policies.

Cllr James Hunt, a Conservative for the Meads, said: “It is difficult. We’d love to say no problem, stay there because we know the implication this will have on the residents there but in planning terms, and policies, the officer has got the right recommendation.

“It is a shame it has come to this and that the residents have been missold [by the previous owner].”

The application was refused not only to “provide relief to local residents” but also because “the site represents an unsustainable location for permanent year-round residential use by virtue of its remote location within the countryside”.

A Swale council spokesman said the authority is considering next steps in due course.

Although the application was refused it was confirmed at the meeting that the 10-month residency is not being enforced.

Cllr Tara Noe, (Con) for Sheppey East, said: “This is a tight-knit community of vulnerable, elderly people.

“The committee showed great sympathy, as have many before them. No one wants to force these pensioners out. While safe from enforcement today, though, they cannot rest easy.

“They haven’t the rights that come with residential status and will live in perpetual fear of what’s around the corner.”

Wendy added: “We will be remaining on site all year round while we appeal the decision.”

A spokesman for Swale council said: “A decision was taken at planning committee on Thursday, April 11, to refuse the retrospective planning application.

“Whilst sympathy was expressed by officers and councillors for the residents’ situation, misselling is not a lawful basis for deciding a planning application, and the application itself was contrary to a number of established planning policies, which are set out in the officer’s report.

“It is the responsibility of the local planning authority to come to a decision based on planning matters and the applicant has a right to appeal.”