25-year row flares up over Lowgate caravan park

Now it has emerged that Blue Sky Resorts, the company that bought the site in 2005, said it was told by Tynedale Council that the permission was still valid.

Director Mark Alston said lawyers for his company had spoken to the council to check the permission, as it was a key factor in the decision to buy the plot.

He said: "We purchased the site primarily because of the extant planning permission and to be certain it was there, we spoke to the council.

"We carried out the appropriate checks with the council and bought the park on the understanding that it was extant."

Mr Alston said the company agreed to submit a new full application - at the council's request, instead of just using the original permission, because of its desire to work fully with the council.

He said: "If we had wanted to we could have gone and built anyway, but we also wanted to do a proper job and make the site better. There then followed two years of us chasing the council as the application edged along - it went past the deadline for when it should have been determined.

"Then, about one week ago, my planning consultant got a letter through saying it was recommended for refusal. We are stuck. We had done everything they had asked us to do and done it all in good faith."

Mr Alston said his Wakefield-based firm had little option but to withdraw the application. He said the firm had now spent £10,000 in consultant fees and £4,000 in fees to the council for the proposal.

Mr Alston said he still wanted to work with the council and hoped to move the proposal forward.

A spokesperson for Tynedale Council said: "The application has been withdrawn by the applicant and will therefore not be considered by the development control committee.

"We are open to further discussions with the applicant on the issues surrounding the earlier permission."