The owner of a Coventry mobile home park has been fined after he was prosecuted for failing to keep the site up to standard.

In the first case of its kind in the city, Horace Gaskin was fined £2,300 and ordered to pay £1,155 costs after admitting six breaches of his licence conditions.

Coventry Magistrates Court heard yesterday that Gaskin had allowed the Bungalows Estate in Lady Lane, Longford to get into a poor state.

By law park owners have to keep the site to certain standards covering maintenance of amenities, fire precautions, emergency vehicle access and water and electric services.

Judith Irwin, prosecuting, said that Gaskin, who lives in Leicestershire, had received considerable warnings from Environmental Health officers about the state of the site.

After the warnings he started to make some improvements, including a complete rewire of the site.

But work stopped, and there was no commitment from Gaskin as to when it would start again. The court was told that overall, the management of the site had been very poor.

Commenting on the case, Cllr John McNicholas, cabinet member for environmental services, said:

“Mobile home parks fill an important role in providing homes to many people.

“If well-maintained and managed they can be highly desirable.

“It is important that site owners realise that they have the quality of people’s lives in their hands and it is important that they strive to provide a reasonable of living for all their residents.”