A Wildlife Haven Under Threat
Travellers have begun transforming a wildlife haven into a caravan site just hours after reports highlighted the field’s vulnerability to illegal development. An influx of workers descended on the four-acre field near Felsted in Essex within hours of the local district council closing its doors for the Bank Holiday weekend on Friday.
Residents had previously raised concerns with Uttlesford District Council about the potential threat to the field, which is known to be home to protected great crested newts and where rare albino fallow deer have been spotted. However, the council stated it was unable to take any action.
The Rapid Development
Yesterday, it was revealed that villages across the country are at risk of illegal traveller site developments following the establishment of several unauthorised caravan sites over the Easter weekend. Specifically, the field at the historic hamlet of Willows Green, just outside Felsted, was identified as being at risk after a local council source warned of intelligence indicating that travellers intended to bring thousands of tonnes of hardcore to develop the site during the bank holiday weekend.
Last night, residents’ fears were confirmed as approximately 30 vehicles, including cars, vans, and several diggers, were brought onto the field to start removing vegetation to prepare for a hardcore and tarmac base. Using floodlights and generators, several men worked through the night to construct the site in the pristine countryside.
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. The field was swamped with vehicles, noise and lights all through the night. No doubt by the time the council reopens on Tuesday there will be a fully-fledged caravan park opposite our homes.’
Legal and Planning Challenges
There had been criticism ahead of the weekend that the district council did not take any preemptive measures, such as placing an Article Four Directive, which bans any usually permitted development like putting up fences, on the land after it heard of the plan to concrete the field.
Others suggested the council could have tried to obtain an emergency injunction to ban any development, making it a criminal offence if work started. This approach was taken by Basildon Council in 2006 when it secured a High Court injunction on land at Kennel Lane, near Billericay, before any development began after it received information that the land had been bought by travellers from Dale Farm.
Yet, on Thursday, when MailOnline asked Uttlesford Council if it had any such plans in place or if enforcement officers would be on standby, with an emergency hotline for residents to call if they saw any suspicious activity, a spokesperson simply urged residents to use the normal online reporting system and said the authority could not act until any development started.
A Shocking Turn of Events
One resident said they had been oblivious to anything being about to happen and that neither the district nor parish council had warned them or asked them to look out for suspicious activity. She said: ‘The first we knew of it was last night when they just turned up. They have made a new access road by ripping out an ancient hedrown and filling in the ditch with rubble. This morning the road was blocked by six lorries containing rubble and pallets. There are bulldozers and diggers on site, it is a huge operation. 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.’
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, a phenomenon recently reported on by MailOnline.
He said: ‘There is not enough housing for anyone anymore 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.’
Historical and Cultural Significance
The Felsted parish is steeped in history and boasts a top private school once attended by Oliver Cromwell’s sons. Felsted School was founded in 1564 by Richard Rich, the first Baron Rich, who served as Lord Chancellor of England during the reign of King Edward VI from 1547 to 1551.
All four of Oliver Cromwell’s sons attended and in more recent years, the school has educated several top cricketers, including England internationals Derek Pringle, Nick Knight, John Stephenson, and Jordan Cox, plus England rugby union player Max Malins.
The field being unlawfully developed is in the historic hamlet of Willows Green, one of a number of green settlements around Felsted that saw development from the Bronze Age. It was sold by a farmer to a real estate company for £125,000 a year ago.
Legal Actions and Ongoing Concerns
Since then, it is believed it has been marketed as about ten smaller plots with fears some have been purchased by members of the travelling community. Bank Holiday weekend developments are a modus operandi that has been used by some members of the travelling community at various sites across the country over the past three decades.
Military-style operations, like the one seen last night, usually commence once the local district council’s offices close on the Friday, before a retrospective planning application, for the work already completed, is handed to the authority when it reopens.
Three councils across the south east were left taking legal action after the Easter bank holiday weekend after different traveller groups set up new unauthorised sites in Surrey, Kent and Hertfordshire.
At one of the locations – a four-acre site at Alfold in Surrey – an interim injunction has been issued following an emergency application from Waverley Borough Council to the High Court after 17 pitches for caravans were created without planning permission.
It ordered the Travellers not to further develop their camp pending another court hearing.
Sevenoaks District Council issued a stop notice to halt work after the illegal construction without planning permission of a traveller site began at a green belt site in Church Road, Sundridge over the Easter weekend.
And, about 16 pitches were developed on an area of outstanding natural beauty at Flamstead, Hertfordshire, without permission over the same weekend causing Dacorum Borough Council to apply for an emergency High Court injunction.
Even if planning applications are refused, it triggers a series of legal appeals during which human rights lawyers argue the council in question is not meeting traveller site provision in the area amid a claim of a drastic national shortage.
Richard Freeman, Chair of Felsted Parish Council’s Planning Committee, said on Thursday, before the illegal work started: ‘Members of the parish council did hear rumours and this was referred to Uttlesford District Council, as it is the council that could take any action, but we were told there is not really any action they can take until something happens so the law is really against us.’
