Gypsies carry on with illegal campsite (From Gazette Series)

Council monitoring new traveller site at Cricklade

3:50pm Wednesday 27th May 2009 in Search By Tina Robins

GYPSIES who moved onto a field outside Cricklade defied orders to stop from council officials and carried on building a camp over the bank holiday weekend, residents claim.

The alarm was raised when a group arrived at 4.30pm on Friday equipped with diggers and immediately started work removing topsoil and laying hard core.

Wiltshire Council officers went to the site alongside the A419 at Calcutt that evening and served temporary stop notices.

The tactic, used successfully at nearby Minety, came as no surprise to residents who knew the site had been sold to travellers and had expected them to appear at Easter and again on the first May bank holiday.

They could only watch in frustration as the travellers put up fences and installed septic tanks over the weekend.

Pamela Woodley, who lives at nearby Calcutt Manor said: "This is totally changing the area we live in."

When the land went up for sale in 2007 there was only planning permission for three stables.

She added that there were concerns for future of land on the opposite side of the road, which was also owned by the travellers and about run off from the septic tanks polluting the river.

"We don’t know how many people will eventually be coming to live on that area."

Chairman of Cricklade Town Council David Tetlow was worried about the impact on residents.

"This is now happening with increasing frequency throughout the country, not just in Wiltshire," he said.

There was a similar case at Hullavington on the first May bank holiday weekend and in the Forest of Dean at the same time as the Calcutt move.

He said there was a sense of frustration on the part of those who kept within planning rules against those who ignored them."

He added: "In my view there has been an abuse of the planning framework because it is quite clear what is going on."

On Tuesday Wiltshire Council confirmed stop notices were issued and said the site was being monitored, but stressed powers to prevent breaches of planning rules were limited.

A spokesman said: "The council’s objectives now are to control and minimise the impact of this unauthorised development on the amenities of local residents.

"A planning application has been submitted to the council by the occupants of the site and this will be available for public inspection once it has been registered.

"The site is now being carefully monitored and a photographic record has been made of its current condition.

"Any work which has been carried out in breach of the terms of the Stop Notices will be assessed by the council and further options will be considered carefully."