A LANDSLIP at a beauty spot was caused by very wet weath-er and not the construction of a new building in a nearby caravan park, according to an independent report.

Ecclesbourne Glen in Hastings Country Park suffered a large landslip in February following a sustained bout of wet weather forcing the closure of the site.

In response Hastings Borough Council commissioned a geo-technical report which has now been published. The re-port reveals that land move-ments had been detected al-most a year before the major landslip following heavy rains in November and the summer of 2012. While the report concludes that to determine at this point the definite cause of the slide, very high, near-surface groundwater levels were considered “most likely” to have caused the slide.

The report said that suggestions a new building in the Rocklands Caravan Park was the cause were “highly unlikely” as it was 70 metres away from the landslide.

The report recommends that the footpath near to the site should remain closed for the “foreseeable future” and that caravans on the lowest terrace of the caravan park should be removed immediately.

The authors said any long-term stabilising measures would be “cost-prohibitive” and thought should be given to relocating the footpaths and reviewing the layout of the caravan park.