VILLAGERS packed into the Barn Room at Hemsby to raise concerns about issues affecting the village at the annual parish meeting.About 25 residents quizzed parish councillors and police about such matters as speeding motorists in Winterton Road and youths behaving anti-socially and taking drugs at the playing field car park in Waters Lane.

VILLAGERS packed into the Barn Room at Hemsby to raise concerns about issues affecting the village at the annual parish meeting.

About 25 residents quizzed parish councillors and police about such matters as speeding motorists in Winterton Road and youths behaving anti-socially and taking drugs at the playing field car park in Waters Lane.

The meeting on Monday was hosted by parish council chairman Bob Reynolds and the council's clerk Shirley Weymouth.

Villager Martin Mehmet, manager of Florida Holiday Park in Hemsby, raised concerns about the impact of foreign workers staying in 36 chalets at the Back Market Lane park were likely to have on the village's tourist trade.

He said a local company, which employs the workers, was letting out the chalets and the workers were contracted to stay at the park until October, meaning the chalets would be occupied throughout the summer season with the workers rather than tourists.

“At the moment, the contract is until October because the building they are working on up north has not been finished yet. Last year, four chalets were taken by the workers; this year there are 36. If it keeps on rolling like this it is not going to stop at our park and what is going to happen then?

“The village has already lost a lot of trade through the closure of Pontins,” said Mr Mehmet.

However, Mrs Weymouth said the workers were contracted until August and that she had asked the borough council's environmental health team to look into the length of time the chalets were being rented as they were built for temporary, not permanent, occupation.

Father Adrian Ling, Rector of St Mary's Church in Hemsby, spoke of his concern about the parish council's stringent criteria on burials in the village, especially on residency.

He said the criteria could mean people living all year round in temporary accommodation at the Belle Aire Holiday Park chalets might be excluded from being buried in the village.

“It is a great reassurance to people to know where they are going and

it matters to the family to know

where their deceased is going,” said Mr Ling.