A PUB landlord is in a row with South Downs planners over a caravan he uses to house staff.

Martin Juden, owner of The Milbury’s in Beauworth, has put his son and daughter-in-law up in the pub’s car park for the last year while they worked on site.

Opponents called the home “obtrusive” and said it threatened the character of the national park.

Mr Juden applied for retrospective planning permission after council officers threatened to remove it from the remote pub near Kilmeston.

A decision is pending but Mr Juden said officers have already told him there was “no chance” he will be allowed to keep the vehicle on site.

“What I don’t like is their attitude,” he said. “They’ve pre-empted the decision. Nobody can see it from the road. It’s only since we put up the yellow ticket. They all come out of the woodwork.

"If we were travellers we'd be allowed to do it, but as we're English we're not."

Sue Scholes, chairman of Beauworth Parish Meeting, said staff did not need to live in a mobile home and planning approval would set a “bad precedent” by allowing other businesses to park similar vehicles in their grounds.

She said: “The pub was run for many years before Mr Juden arrived here without the need for mobile homes for staff. There is accommodation in the surrounding villages and towns.

“It will be highly visible when the leaves fall. South Downs National Park and the surrounding areas would be disfigured, if you like, with a rash of mobile homes in their grounds.”