Humberston Fitties holiday park to be sold by council

There are about 320 single-storey chalets on the site

A holiday park on the coast of the Humber estuary which includes more than 300 chalets has been sold.

North East Lincolnshire Council, which owns Humberston Fitties, near Cleethorpes, approved an unnamed buyer's bid for the site.

Councillor Matthew Patrick said chalet owners had "nothing to fear from a change of ownership".

The move is a blow to residents who had hoped to run the chalet park themselves with a £1.5m community bid.

The sale of the site would "remove a financial constraint", said a council report.

The council said the preferred bidder "represents the best deal" and it hoped to name the winner later.

Mr Patrick said the bidder had indicated it hoped to offer leases over 25 years, rather than the current five years, to "provide the comfort of knowing chalet owners can invest in their property".

Many of the original chalets were self-built in the 1930s

Bob Reynolds, chair of the park's Community Interest Company, said the group would take further legal advice and consult over its next move.

"Being secretive make us doubt even further what they [the council] are doing," he said.

Sarah Palmer, a chalet owner, said: "We've been kept in the dark from day one and that's added to the fear. It's a feeling of utter powerlessness."

The Fitties' chalets were first developed after World War One and came into council control in 1938.

The council first discussed offloading the site in 2014, put it up for sale in October and agreed in principle to dispose of the site in January.