A HEREFORDSHIRE community is facing up to the possibility of being made homeless for months every year if confusion over red tape fails to be resolved.

Around 100 residents living in 47 mobile homes at Meadow Bank caravan park, in Hamnish, could be forced to leave their homes for an unknown period of time every year after a disagreement over the status of the site with the council.

The dispute concerns the amount of time residents are allowed to live at the park. Pam Moore, the site's owner, believes she is licensed to allow all-year occupancy but the council claims the licence was issued in error and the site needs planning permission to allow residents to live there permanently.

The site was developed after Miss Moore was approached by Leominster District Council to provide accommodation for homeless people in 1998. Since then, around £100,000 has been spent improving roads and lighting and in April, 2003, she was granted a residential licence.

If councillors do not give planning permission later this month for the site to have permanent occupants, residents fear they will have to move out of the park for a specified period of time each year.

"This is a community that wants to stay together. Nobody wants to leave here and we have a waiting list," Miss Moore said.

"The residents think the council is being ridiculous, especially those who have been here for years.

"It's been a very stressful time for all concerned and the worry has taken a toll on my health. I just don't know what is going to happen."

Lesley Smith, the park's manageress, said many of its residents were concerned that they would not be able to live in their homes all year round.

"All we want to know is whether this is a permanent residential site so we would not have to move out," she said. "I speak for most of the residents in saying that I have nowhere to go."

John Gibbons, who has lived at the site for 15 years, said: "I am disabled and I cannot get anywhere else to stay."

But Herefordshire Council said that even though it issued the site with a residential licence in error, planning permission is still required.

Spokesman John Burnett said the mistake in issuing the licence was discovered last year and the correct licence was issued on May 24 this year - but that the current planning permission is for holiday use only.

The amount of time residents could live on the site would depend on the conditions laid down in the planning permission, he said.

Earlier this year Herefordshire Council turned down an application to give the site a permanent residential licence. The matter will come up before councillors again on August 22.