Plans submitted to turn former boys' camp on eroding clifftops near Hornsea into holiday park

Applicants Grandular Living Limited want planning permission to put up 50 lodges on the two hectare site, which is on the seaward side of the B1242 and less than a mile from Hornsea.

The original camp is thought to have been set up by Hull Boys' Club, before being taken over in 1939 by Hull Corporation, the predecessor of Hull Council, which used to send kids on holidays to the seaside. They were put up in large huts. Now little is left standing apart from one building - the “officer’s mess” where youngsters used to watch films like the epic war movie The Longest Day on old cine reels.

The council’s coastal engineers have objected because of rapid erosion – the Holderness coastline is the fastest eroding in Europe. They’ve calculated that the chalets would come at risk in just seven years and the whole site could be lost in 48 years.

However the applicants state that there’s been no significant erosion in the past five years and when the time comes to “roll back” chalets could be relocated to other parks they own including Little Eden, Bridlington and Applegrove, Scarborough.

The developers insist the park would meet demand for more high-quality self-catering holiday accommodation in the area.

In a discussion on social media a former pupils from a Hull school recalled spending two weeks holiday staying in huts at the camp in the 1960s. Another from further afield remembered having to fill his own mattress with straw. He said: “Ablutions were up the hill in outside wash stands with freezing cold water, then down to the huge barn at the bottom of the field for breakfast! Hard times but good and fair times. Kids these days don't know they're born!”