A bid to turn a former Second World War RAF site into a storage centre for boats and caravans has been refused over environmental concerns. 

Just before Christmas, North Norfolk District Council’s development committee unanimously voted against the plans for a 2.5ha site off Langham Road in Morston, which is in the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. 

Jonathan Cheetham, who has managed the site for the past 40 years and has been seeking permission to change its use for several years, said the project would have benefited the local economy.

Mr Cheetham said: “Villages need businesses, children keep local schools open and tourism is an essential part of our local economy. 

“2.5ha of this land will, in fact, employ more people than 2,500 acres of farmland.”

But the committee members heard there had been 37 letters of objection to the plan, including from the local parish council.

Councillor Richard Kershaw said: “I’m concerned there would be more harm than benefits. It's in a very rural site. It would result in the intensification and industrialisation of woodland.” 

Another councillor, Angie Fitch-Tillett, said the plans were “totally in depriment to the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.”

And councillor Dr Victoria Holliday said: "As the representative for Morston and nearby parishes, I don’t think the economic benefits outweigh the landscape and ecological harm this would cause.

“I think it would be very prominent both from the coast and looking down from Langham, in terms of caravans and boats being quite plastic, white and shiny in the sunshine.” 

Mr Cheetham applied for permission to store up to 107 caravans or boats - mostly in 39 shipping containers - at the site.

Smaller boats with outboard motors would have been stored in the containers, while larger boats would be kept on the hardstanding.

The site is now mostly woodland and scrub, and there are some areas of old tarmac hardstanding there from its wartime use.

The proposal followed a similar bid to place 29 containers on the same land submitted to NNDC in 2020. 

But this application was withdrawn after a number of objections were made and Mr Cheetham was advised the plan did not meet a number of planning policies.