About 3,000 migrant workers come to the Hayle area every year

Businessman Alan Garrard wants to build the caravan park in an industrial estate on the outskirts of Hayle.

The proposals have met opposition because of concern the town is too small for a large influx of people.

Mr Garrard said workers were limited in how long they worked and were not trying to become permanent residents.

Services stretched

He said: "They are brought in on contract, they're here for two months or three months and then they leave when the work has dried up.

"My company moves them elsewhere throughout the country and then they go back home.

"These aren't people who are looking to stay here. They've got homes where they come from and they're just here to a make some extra money."

But the chairman of Hayle Chamber of Commerce, Jeremy Joslin, said community services were already stretched dealing with permanent residents.

He said: "We have 80,000 visitors a month in the high season and we have trouble enough keeping basic infrastructure concerned going.

"This is a point of having enough for ourselves in Hayle without having to look after more."

Many Cornish flower and bulb farms rely on seasonal foreign workers. It is believed in total about 3,000 migrant workers come to the Hayle area every year.

Mr Garrard has talked to Penwith District Council but planning officers said, as yet, no official application had been made.