Travellers Use Heavy Machinery to Claim Land in Rural England
In a controversial move, travellers have been using industrial diggers and lorries to drag caravans into villages in the southeast of England during a bank holiday. This has led to what some are calling a “land grab” in rural areas, particularly in Essex and Kent. The actions have sparked frustration among local residents as council offices were closed over the weekend, allowing the activity to take place without immediate oversight.
Industrial diggers worked through most of the May bank holiday weekend to lay rubble on land in Hoath, Canterbury. Despite a stop notice issued by Canterbury City Council on Friday, the travellers ignored the warning. A hedgerow was flattened to make way for an entrance, and a static caravan was already in place by Sunday. A planning application to station three caravans on the land had been rejected a month earlier, with officials citing it as 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 it would carry out further checks to ensure compliance with regulations later this week. A spokesperson 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 drawn strong criticism from Conservative MP James Cleverly. He accused the group of “gaming the system” after they began constructing an “illegal” camp in the historic hamlet of Willows Green, near Felsted, Essex. An army of workers turned up within hours of the local district council closing its doors for the bank holiday weekend on Friday.
About 30 vehicles, including cars, vans, and several diggers, were brought onto the field under the cover of darkness in the MP’s constituency. 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 on Saturday 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.
He added, “Because the local community here knows that this is going to be disruptive to them, and anyone who has tried to get a builder to start work after hours on a Friday on a bank holiday weekend will know that there’s something not right about this.”
Concerns Over Two-Tier Justice
The incident came just hours after Mr Cleverly suggested there was “two-tier justice” when it came to applying rules and laws to travellers. The Daily Mail last week highlighted the spot as one of the areas 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 said, “We often see situations where they [travellers] move onto land that they own and without lawyers, without planning applications, they just build, build, build.” He added, “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.”
Unlawful Development and Community Outrage
The field being unlawfully developed was sold by a farmer to a real estate company for £125,000 a year ago. Since then, 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.”
Residents expressed frustration that the district council had taken no preemptive measures, such as placing an Article 4 Direction, which bans any usually permitted development, on the land. Others suggested the council could have obtained an emergency injunction banning any development, making it a criminal offence if work started.
Housing Crisis and Traveller Activities
An insider who has assisted the traveller community in winning retrospective planning permission said the recent wave of development was partly due to some travellers renting out part or all of their sites to migrants and homeless people. He explained, “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 responded by stating that it is aware of local concerns but emphasized that it cannot act until a breach of planning control occurs. A spokesperson said, “Planning enforcement is a reactive service – this means the council can only take formal action once a breach has taken place.”
Residents continue to call for swift action, expressing fear and uncertainty about the future of their community. One resident said, “It is very frightening and we do not know what to do, it was a complete shock and we need to hear of some action from Uttlesford Council.”
