Travellers who built an illegal encampment near a historic estate over a bank holiday weekend can stay there until the end of the decade after a local authority was overruled by officials despite 400 objections from residents. The Telegraph has the story.
Officials have ruled that the site near the Grade II-listed Blaby Hall estate in Leicestershire can remain in place until June 2029 after concerns were raised that evicting the travellers would make them homeless.
Travellers installed fences and gates on land near Bouskell Park, a stone’s throw from the estate, when they arrived over the August bank holiday weekend last year.
Blaby District Council rejected the traveller family’s retrospective planning application in November after more than 400 residents objected to the site. They argued that the site was too close to Blaby Hall and would form “a discordant feature” in the area.
However, the Planning Inspectorate has granted the traveller family’s appeal, thereby overruling the concerns of the council and residents.
It means that a static caravan, touring caravan, hardstanding, fencing and gates can remain on the land east of Sycamore Street for another three years.
Residents are dismayed at the decision, claiming that it will encourage other travellers to “flout the rules”.
A man living near the site who refused to be named for fear of reprisals said: “It’s ridiculous. If I wanted to build a porch I’d need to get planning permission, so why don’t they need it?
“The site borders a conservation area. Having it there is just not in keeping with what we have here.
“They might even just end up renting the site out if it gets full approval, which would be even more ridiculous.”
Another resident, who claimed they had been threatened by travellers in the past, added: “It’s an outrage. They break the law and get rewarded for it. What on earth is deterring other travelling groups from following suit and simply flouting the law?
“These people are hiding behind the culture of travellers to avoid obeying the law as everybody else does.”
Worth reading in full.
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Made themselves intentionally homeless by moving from their previous site. Does not appear to say country of origin but friends in Ireland have said those from there all have a house there even if they abuse our hospitality here.
How can you be “homeless” if you have a caravan?, and will they be charged CT?, or is it another case of they can do what they like so we dont get called racist?, get them evicted, they tresspassed in the first place, this country gets worse daily
They are “special people” so the “law” always works in their favour.
We don’t have two-tier justice, we have multi-tier ….. and they are near the top.
It seems obvious to me that English and Traveller culture are not compatible. I’d suggest that they are given their own country but I doubt that is what they want. Compare them to what is probably a similarly small minority group – Hasidic Jews. The Jews are clannish, weird (to us as I suppose we are to them), inward looking and closed minded. But they are not known for stealing land and anti social behaviour. They buy land and work.
These people from a Hostile Alien Culture are being used as a BATTERING RAM by the Communist Globalists who want to trash the countryside and Abolish Private Property (and then buy it up cheaply themselves, like the Soviet Cadres with private villas on the Black Sea).
The “Right to Roam” movement, and “Wild Camping” are also Communist Globalist Battering Rams to Abolish Private Property.
The Planning Inspectorate is not the aloof impartial pointy headed quasi judicial body the public think it is. It acts on detailed Ministerial guidance (some of which I suspect is not public) and they know they cannot be challenged other than by people with very deep pockets.
Judicial review is the only appeal.
I had a planning application appeal turned down. All the LPA’s objections were dismissed except two. The PI claimed the design was out of keeping in a street the planning committee itself has determined has no established building style. Second they acknowledged the application met applicable planning standards on amenity space but the Inspector decided she thought there should be more.
Result one fewer architect designed high quality house not built and one ageing couple are NOT down sizing.
“Officials” should not be able to overrule democratically elected authority.
Council Planning Executives are not elected, they are employees of the Council and elected Councillors are a fig-leaf of democracy with little or no influence. Local Planning Authorities at Councils are just as much officials as Planning Inspectors, who will probably be far more qualified in planning regulations. Councils have to meet quotas when accommodating people who like to up stakes and move at will. It is a form of DEI.
Well if they have built a permanant site, by defintion they are not travellers, because they ain’t travelling anywhere, and if you are a traveller how can you be made homeless, when you have a home, its called a caravan.
I fancy living in David Beckhams back yard, so I will get a ton of concrete go and lay a bit of tarmac and park my caravan on it.
Youngsters, can’t afford a home or rent? go get a cheap caravan and go park outside Reeves, Milliband or whoevers you fancy, declare yourslef a traveller and you are good to go.
That will only work if the offender is from the right cultural or racial group.
The Planning Inspectorate has no power to enforce its own decision, neither does the next point of reference, the Local Government Ombudsman. The Council could proceed as it wishes and let the travellers take it to the High Court involving much time and expense with no guarantee of success for them. Or the Council could challenge the decision now.
When officials in my area don’t like planning refusals which are appealed they just forget to send in any papers so the decision goes the way they wanted in the first place.
Nice one!
Well, at least the DS is allowing comments.
The DT isn’t.
Does anyone else find the excuse ‘We might become homeless’ when they pull their homes around the country hooked up to the back of flat bed Transits, strangely absurd..?
Homeless? A traveller with no fixed abode, imagine that! A homeless traveller is oxymoronic.
How can they be homeless they’ve got a sodding caravan.
FFS.
Two-tier justice yet again.
Mind you, travellers have been flouting the law since forever, with a cowardly justice/planning/political system letting them get away with it.
The country is effed.
Nigel, your time is coming. *You’d better* do what you’re promising and sort this sort of crap out…
Checking it out on Google Maps satellite view, I can’t see what land is available that they could have set up on. It all looks like privately owned land, unless they’re squatting on land? The picture at the top of this article doesn’t show anything much different to what’s on the satellite view.
Any locals here who can elaborate?
I can confirm the police have been unwilling to deal with law breaking by the gypsies since the 1960s.
No one has ever explained why the simplest solution has never been tried: a law making TRESPASS A CRIMINAL OFFENCE, giving police and landowners the right to instantly turf the b*stards off their land, rather than the current “Civil Offence Handwringing” tying everything up in the courts.
Wouldn’t it be sad if by a montrous stroke of misfortune somebody driving a Caterpillar D9 bulldozer in the vicinity momentarly lost control and accidentally razed the sodding place to the ground?
as rule of law and property rights are immolated to pander to scofflaw twats and foreigners, our civilization is on life support.