Six years of battling has come to an end with a ruling that chalets built at Seaview Holiday Village in Whitstable were put up unlawfully.

But the news has come too late for dozens of owners of holiday homes.

The planning inspector’s decision should have meant jubilation among owners of the older chalets, who formed an action group to fight the new development, but they have now all been forced to quit the site and seen their wooden huts demolished.

John Oetegenn, whose chalet was bulldozed in July, last year, said: “No one has any fight - or any funds - left in them. It is all a bit sad.

“Most of these chalets had been there at least since the 1960s and there had been chalets on the site since the 1930s.

“But now there is just an empty field and they can’t even build on it.”

For full story and reaction, see this week’s Whitstable Gazette, out on Thursday.