Land at a Herefordshire beauty spot has been used as a campsite without formal planning permission for so long that nothing can now be done to prevent it, it has been claimed.

Ross Rowing Club is seeking a “CLEUD” or certificate of lawfulness confirming it cannot face enforcement action for using Stock Meadow, beside its clubhouse between Homs Road and the river Wye, as a seasonal camping ground.

This it has done between Easter and the end of September continuously since 1997, having bought the land two years earlier, the application says.

Under planning law, an un-permitted use of land or property becomes immune from enforcement action after ten years.

In a letter with the application, current club chairman Jonathan Preece says that Stock Meadow “has been used continuously for camping since I rejoined the club in 2004”.

His letter adds: “The income is used to buy equipment and maintain the facilities.”

A statement with the application says accounts showing receipts from camping at the four-hectare site between 2008 and 2012 and between 2014 and 2023 are also included, though these have yet to be published.

The club’s camping webpage gives directions to campers arriving by canoe on the river, and says all campers are given temporary club membership during their stay, “to allow them to purchase drinks/food from the clubhouse bar”.