BOSSES at a popular Ribble Valley caravan site say 62 static caravans could bring £1.2m to the local economy.

Holgates Ribble Valley run by Rimington Leisure Park Limited were given the green-light last week for the expansion plans for land at their site on Hardacre Lane in Rimington.

Michael Holgate, owner of Holgates, believes the new scheme will benefit from current market of people opting to stay in England for holidays.

He said: "We have had Rimington for 20 months and have spent about £1m on improvements on the site.

"I have had planning approval for 30 pitches and a large development on the site but this finishes the development off.

"The park was run down when we took over and we have tried to put a bit of our high-quality and standards on there.

"These new statics will be great for stay-cations and we are seeing a lot of people interested in using them with the current lockdown restrictions.

"We are finding that mums and dads are getting a van for the kids and families to use and we are very much a family orientated business.

"We are seeing unprecedented interest in vans at the minute due to the restrictions when they maybe don't want to go abroad.

"Some of them will be available to buy and others will be people to rent for vacations."

Mr Holgate added that they were delighted to be given approval from Ribble Valley Council.

He said: "We have been working with the council for some time on this and it is good to get the approval.

"It allows us to put in further investment into the area but we have not costed up how much it is going to be."

In the planning documents, submitted to the council it is mentioned that the development could benefit the community.

It said: "Based on these figures and assuming occupation of the additional pitches for 200 nights per year, the proposed development could generate £1.2 million per annum of spending in the local economy. This is clearly a significant economic benefit of the proposed development."

Mr Holgate added: "We are hoping that the people will be looking to spend their money in the local shops and pubs and restaurants too."