THEY had reached a certain time in life and moved to a rural idyll for peace and quiet.
Now, residents of a park homes site are deeply divided by a planning row and allegations their homes were fraudulently sold as being for full-time residential use.
Some have been represented at a planning inquiry to decide whether East Riding Council should give them full planning permission to continue living in holiday homes at Lakeminster Park in Woodmansey.
But the final day of that inquiry heard many more do not support the planning appeal. Many of those are supporting planned legal action over how the homes were sold.
They want to move away from a place where neighbour has turned against neighbour.
Resident Dorothy Middleton, in a letter to the inquiry, said: "This has devastated us as we are very unhappy here.
"Since all this started our neighbours have turned against us as we are not of the same thinking as them and life here is now intolerable."
About a dozen residents are standing behind talisman Alan Coates as he appeals against East Riding Council enforcement notices and seeks to be given full-time planning permission.
For the past two weeks he has lined up next to Lakeminster Park Ltd with East Riding Council as the opponent at a costly planning inquiry.
Giving evidence at the inquiry this week, Mr Coates said: "I can't see we are doing much harm. We live in a nice community and pay our taxes. I can't understand the council's view for us to have to leave. I just don't see it."
Mr Coates's view that East Riding Council enforcement notices breach his human rights has some support among his neighbours but many more on the park are against him.
Mrs Middleton says: "Mr Coates does certainly not speak for us. This is not the happy place they have been describing.
"We are not all getting on together.
"When we moved here we thought it was a peaceful and tranquil place where we thought we would be happy to retire to. We feel trapped and there is no way forward."
Fellow residents Stephen and Mandy Sheperdson wrote: "We have heard that Mr Coates and a number of other residents have spoken out telling the inquiry that everyone loves it here on the park.
"We don't want anyone else speaking out on our behalf, which is why we are writing to you.
"When we moved into our new home we met and made many new friends. It was a very happy, neighbourly and lively community. Residents would look out for each other.
"There was always laughter on the park, always people standing out talking to each other, but not any more. People are falling out with each other across the park. The spirit on the park has gone and, whatever the outcome, it will never be the same living here.
"The park is very much divided by a small minority since the arrival of the eviction notices as people are of different opinions, making life very difficult and unhappy."
The residents' letters to the inquiry, including one in a sealed envelope with the specific instruction not to be read out, were produced yesterday by East Riding Council on the final day of the two-week inquiry as evidence that some people on the park do not support Mr Coates's view.
The council took years to do anything about people living without planning permission on the site. Then it refused a retrospective planning application for full residential permission and, later, issued enforcement notices.
Now it is determined full permission will not be given.
Planning Inspector John Braithwaite has heard evidence from the council and on behalf of Lakeminster Park Ltd, as well as on behalf of Alan Coates and 12 of his neighbours.
Much of the argument has centred on planning policy and legal precedent.
Witnesses supporting Mr Coates spelled out how they came to be in the predicament and what council eviction would mean for them.
Dave Foulstone and his wife sold their bungalow in Sheffield to buy their £140,000 park home.
Mr Foulstone said: "We found out, to our dismay, we had purchased a holiday home – not a permanent home.
"We were in a complete state of shock. We would be devastated if we had to leave the site and do not have the money to purchase another property.
"We thought we had left no stone unturned in our investigations while purchasing our park home. Our whole lives have been sent into turmoil."
Retired Bradford University administrator Doreen Radcliffe said: "I have never lived anywhere where I have felt more safe. Everyone looks after each other.
"This was the last move we were ever going to make. We have nowhere else to go and have no desire to return to Bradford."
Residents on both sides of the argument sat in to watch sections of the two-week planning inquiry.
Mr Braithwaite directed several of his remarks to them and made an effort to help them follow the legal argument going back and forth.
The inspector said the first thing he had to look at would be the Beverley Local Plan – the blueprint for development.
The council says the park site is simply not in an area designated for residential properties.
Mr Braithwaite said, that being the case, he would have to find a solution.
He said: "I must find out what harm is caused by this development. Then I will balance that with material considerations."
The inspector explained that those "material considerations" would be the residents' personal circumstances and the housing land supply.
Mr Braithwaite's decision is likely to be several weeks, if not months, away.
All the residents, whether they supported Mr Coates's arguments, or not, stand to benefit if the inspector finds in favour of granting full planning permission.
But it seems unlikely Lakeminster Park will return to being the retirement haven they hoped it would be.
