Unauthorised Land Development Sparks Outrage in Rural England
In a shocking turn of events, unauthorised land development has taken place across several rural areas in the southeast of England during the May bank holiday weekend. Travellers have been using heavy machinery such as diggers and lorries to move caravans into villages, leading to widespread frustration among local residents.
The latest incidents occurred in Essex and Kent, where council offices were closed over the weekend, allowing these activities to proceed without immediate oversight. In Hoath, Canterbury, industrial diggers were seen working through most of the holiday to lay rubble on the land. A hedgerow was flattened to create an entrance, and a static caravan was already in place by Sunday.
A planning application to station three caravans on the land had previously been rejected by the council, which deemed it a ‘harmful form of development’. The area is also home to protected species of reptiles, breeding birds, and foraging bats, according to a report by Kent County Council’s Ecological Advice Service.
Canterbury City Council stated that they would carry out further checks to ensure compliance with regulations later in the week. A spokesperson for the council said: “We always take reports of unauthorised activity seriously and act as quickly as we can.”
Conservative MP Condemns Illegal Camp Construction
The underhanded tactics of the travellers have sparked outrage among local officials. James Cleverly, a Conservative MP, condemned the actions after a four-acre wildlife haven in his Essex constituency was flattened. He accused the group of ‘gaming the system’ after they began constructing an ‘illegal’ camp in the historic hamlet of Willows Green, near Felsted.
An army of workers arrived within hours of the local district council closing its doors for the bank holiday weekend. About 30 vehicles, including cars, vans, and several diggers, were brought onto the field under the cover of darkness. Vegetation was ripped up to prepare the ground for a hardcore and tarmac base. Aerial photos showed fences already installed as diggers continued to lay rubble.
Mr Cleverly was seen walking in the field near the site and posted a video on Facebook demanding action. “This is why we have got to take action to make sure that building work like this, taking place outside office hours, clearly seeking to game the system, that we are able to take decisive and quick action,” he said.
Concerns Over Two-Tier Justice
Mr Cleverly’s comments came just hours after he suggested there was ‘two-tier justice’ when it came to applying rules and laws to travellers. The Daily Mail highlighted the area as one of the spots at risk of being targeted after a local council source warned of intelligence that travellers intended to import thousands of tonnes of hardcore to develop a site over the bank holiday weekend.
In an earlier video, Mr Cleverly stated: “We often see situations where they [travellers] move onto land that they own and without lawyers, without planning applications, they just build, build, build. No one else would be allowed to do so. And when the authorities try to take action, whether it be the council or the police they’re accused of racism to try and deter them from doing the right thing.”
Historical Precedents and Current Inaction
The field being unlawfully developed was sold by a farmer to a real estate company for £125,000 a year ago. It is believed to have been marketed as about ten smaller plots, with fears that some had been purchased by members of the travelling community. Using floodlights and generators, several men worked through the night to construct over the pristine countryside.
Residents whose homes in the picturesque hamlet will overlook one side of the site saw work begin and awoke to see it continuing. One man in his 60s said: “The council was warned this was on the cards but just sat back and waited for it to happen.”
There had been criticism ahead of the weekend that the district council took no preemptive measures, such as placing what is known as an Article 4 Direction, which bans any usually permitted development such as putting up fences, on the land, after it heard of the plan to concrete the field.
Housing Crisis Fuels Continued Development
An insider who has assisted the traveller community in winning retrospective planning permission said the recent wave of development was in part caused by some travellers renting out part or all of their sites to migrants and homeless people, a phenomenon recently reported on by the Daily Mail.
He said: “There is not enough housing for anyone any more so some travellers are renting out their land to non-travellers and then moving off and building new sites. This cycle will keep being repeated while there is a housing crisis across the country.”
Uttlesford Council stated that they are aware of local concerns regarding the land, however, at this stage no breach of planning control has occurred. A spokesperson said: “Planning enforcement is a reactive service – this means the council can only take formal action once a breach has taken place. It cannot act before a breach has occurred.”
The council has been contacted for comment again after the work started.
