ANGRY holidaymakers have slammed a Dales caravan park for carrying out major works which they say could endanger a child's life.

They say dumper trucks and diggers have moved tons of gravel and sand onto the Littondale Country and Leisure Park, near Arncliffe - and drivers are working while children play nearby.

One holiday maker claimed that his five-year-old daughter was playing on her scooter when she came within inches of a dumper truck as it was moving around the site. Workers have also been using a cement mixer on the site.

David Stansfield, of Newquay, Cornwall, said: "My daughter could conceivably have been killed. You don't want this kind of work going on outside your caravan when you're on holiday anyway, but to do it when there are children playing nearby is ridiculously irresponsible.

"It looks like they are making hard standing plots for caravans. There are large bags of sand and gravel near our caravan and none of them are fenced off. And the trucks are being driven around the site far too fast - there is a five mph limit but they are definitely going much faster than that. It's an accident waiting to happen.

"When I pointed this out to management on the site they said children needed to be supervised. I was amazed."

Another holidaymaker, who asked not to be named, said she could not believe work was going on at the height of the holiday season.

She said: "It's a nice site but I can't believe they are carrying out this work now - the sand is like a magnet to young children."

The site was formerly the Hawkswick Cote Caravan Park, but was renamed by its new owners Park Leisure recently.

Mr Stansfield, an artist, said he was on a week's holiday with his wife and four children, but had decided to go home early.

"We love the Dales and this area particularly , but apart from the potential danger to children you don't want this kind of thing while you're on holiday. If this work has to be done why not do it outside peak holiday season? It's absurd."

Park Leisure's operations director for the north, Clive Allerston, said "We have a health and safety policy which we take with the utmost seriousness, so we were very sorry to hear about these complaints. The health and safety executive has already visited the site and made recommendations which of course we will make every attempt to follow. We will also make sure the contractors working on the site are fully aware of them."