HUNSTANTON: Caravan owner claims to pay double tax

An article in the Lynn News, that is the same as the problem we have been having, i do know David Shaw he is a man from church and my ex yoga teachers husband.

Published on Wednesday 19 September 2012 18:00

RETIRED civil servant David Shaw claims that he is being asked to pay double tax on his holiday caravan at Hunstanton.

The 83-year-old says West Norfolk Council is pursuing him for council tax even though he is living on a holiday caravan park where he already pays for local services.
Mr Shaw said: “The council want to charge us council tax for our address but we already pay the park owners an annual fee for local authority tax, thus making us pay for the tax twice on the same address.”
As well as site fees and the local authority tax, caravan owners at Manor Park pay the park owners for utility bills, such as water, electricity and gas, as part of the site licence, he said.
As he is now retired, Mr Shaw could spend up to 11 months of the year at his caravan and does make use of it for much of that time.
He said: “There are over 200 caravans on the park and in the site contract we have to sign that we will pay the site fees and the local authority tax every year.”
Manor Park is part of the Park Resorts group, the second largest operator of caravan parks in the UK with 39 mainly seaside sites providing more than 20,500 holiday homes and touring caravan pitches.
A Park Resorts spokesman said: “Manor Park is a holiday park and our caravan owners are allowed to occupy their caravans for up to 11 months of the year for holiday and leisure purposes only.
“The caravan owners are therefore not permanent residents on the holiday park and are not required to pay local council tax.
“The terms and conditions of their individual licence to occupy a pitch on the park requires caravan owners to have a permanent address away from the park and they therefore pay council tax in their home towns.
“However, the park pays business rates and attached to the park business rates invoice each year is a schedule setting out the amount of those rates to be recharged to the caravan owners as their contribution to the provision of local services.
“If our owners are listing their caravans as a permanent residence then they are in breach of several of the terms and conditions of their pitch licence, which we take very seriously.”
A borough council spokesman said the authority was not in a position to comment at the time of going to press.

I spoke to him in Church on Sunday, and Manor Park had threatened to throw them off.