Allhallows Holiday Park Bids to Open From 1 February

The company behind the holiday park at Allhallows-on-Sea has asked Medway Council to let its caravans be occupied from 1 February each year, a month earlier than the site’s planning permission allows. The site is listed on the planning register as Haven Kent Coast Holiday Park, ME3 9QD.

The application, reference MC/26/1570, was validated on 18 August 2026. Comments are open until 12 September 2026 (Medway Council planning portal).

What is actually being asked for

This is a variation-of-condition application, not a new development. It targets a single condition on a permission granted five years ago.

• The permission is MC/19/2202, decided on 15 November 2021
• That allowed the reconfiguration of hardstanding bases and the golf course to install 95 hardstanding bases, an uplift of 84 static caravans, with internal access road, footpaths, landscaping and below-ground infrastructure
• The applicant is Palmhall Limited, of Park Lane, Hemel Hempstead
• The agent is the planning consultancy Lichfields
• The application form gives the reason for the change in four words: “Amend occupancy date”

Condition 10 of that permission currently reads: “The Holiday Caravans shall be occupied only between the period 1st March to 31st October in each year and at no other time outside the said period” (decision notice, MC/19/2202).

The application would change the start of that window to 1 February. The 31 October end date stays. In practice it adds the whole of February to the season, every year.

The condition was imposed for wildlife, not for holidaymakers

Seasonal occupancy conditions are often about stopping caravans becoming permanent homes. This one is not, or at least not only.

The decision notice sets out the council’s reason for condition 10 in its own words: “In the interest of protection of the protected species and in compliance with Policy BNE39 of the local plan and paragraph 170 of the NPPF.”

The committee report for the same application explains why the site attracts that wording. It records that:

• the site is adjacent to the Thames Estuary and Marshes Special Protection Area, Ramsar site and Site of Special Scientific Interest
• it is within 3km of the Medway Estuary and Marshes SPA, Ramsar site and SSSI
• it holds suitable habitat for breeding birds
• at least nine bird species were recorded on the site during the wintering bird survey
• at least five of those are species associated with the neighbouring designated sites

The Thames Estuary and Marshes SPA covers 4,802 hectares and was classified in March 2000. It is designated largely for birds that are there in winter: hen harrier, black-tailed godwit, grey plover, avocet and redshank all qualify on their overwintering numbers, and the site regularly supports an internationally important assemblage of more than 75,000 waterbirds over the winter (JNCC standard data form, UK9012021).

February sits inside that period. The 2021 permission also secured £13,751.92 towards bird mitigation measures through a legal agreement, alongside contributions covering local GP capacity and the upkeep of public rights of way, to offset the extra visitors the 84 additional caravans would bring.

None of that means the application will be refused. It does mean the council has to weigh the extra month against the reason it wrote the condition in the first place, and that Natural England is likely to have a view. No consultee responses had been published on the file when we checked on 22 August.

What is on the file, and what is not

Only two documents have been published so far: the redacted application form and a site location plan. There is no planning statement, no ecological assessment and no supporting evidence about the effect of a February start.

The portal’s constraints tab shows nothing recorded against this application. That tab is not a reliable guide on Medway’s system, and the designations described above come from the council’s own committee report on the parent permission rather than from the constraints list.

What it means for you

If you live in Allhallows or on the Hoo Peninsula, the practical question is what a February start would mean locally: traffic on the roads in and out, the beach and sea wall in winter, and trade for nearby businesses outside the current season. When the 2021 permission was decided, the council weighed nature conservation concerns against what its committee report called the potential economic benefits of the development. The same balance applies here, over a different month.

If you want to comment, you can do so through the application page on Medway Council’s planning portal. The consultation runs to 12 September 2026. Comments have to relate to planning matters: in this case the effect on protected species and designated sites, on highways and on neighbouring amenity are all relevant; the identity of the operator is not.

The key dates:

• 18 August 2026: application received and validated
• 21 August 2026: the portal’s latest neighbour consultation date
• 12 September 2026: consultation closes
• 17 November 2026: the council’s internal target date for a decision

No committee date has been set, and no decision has been made. We will follow the file.

Other live applications across the towns are listed on our Medway planning applications page, and our Medway planning news page carries the bigger schemes.

Sources

• Medway Council planning portal, MC/26/1570, Haven Kent Coast Holiday Park, Allhallows, ME3 9QD: application details, dates and documents
• Medway Council planning portal, MC/19/2202: decision notice of 15 November 2021 (condition 10 and its stated reason) and the committee report (designations, wintering bird survey findings and the s106 contributions)
• Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Thames Estuary and Marshes SPA standard data form, UK9012021

Details are as published on Medway Council’s planning portal on 22 August 2026. Applications change; check the portal for the current position before relying on any date here.