Audio of Village Meeting
The Chief Executive of Uttlesford District Council attended a meeting yesterday (7th August) with members of her Planning and Enforcement teams to explain the situation regarding the occupation of the land at the top of Birchanger Lane by members of a travelling family. The family has bought this land in the Green Belt and intends to live there on a permanent basis.
There was a planning application on this site for stables, which Uttlesford saw no planning reason to refuse, as the type of development requested is not incompatible with the green belt. However a number of caravans are now on the land without planning permission. It is understood that an application for change of use has been submitted but has failed validation due to technical reasons. Once these have been resolved the application will be published and processed by Uttlesford in the usual way. We will be able to comment on the application then.
The speakers iterated time and again that, so far, nobody has committed any offence. This is just a planning matter, albeit a big one. They also repeatedly said that a planning application must be judged on land use only, and they are not allowed to make any decision based on the character or motives of the applicants.
An emergency (therefore short-term) injunction restricting the number of caravans and associated matters has been granted, is being monitored, and has (so far) been complied with. Uttlesford are going back to the High Court on the 13th to try to get the injunction confirmed.
As the travellers own the site the only means of returning the land to its original state is through the planning system. The site is in the Green Belt so exceptional circumstances would have to be proved if the application is to succeed, but Uttlesford have no choice but to deal with the application on its planning, land use, merits only. They were very careful not to predict whether they would be able to approve or refuse the application. If they do refuse then an appeal will probably follow, meaning the whole process could take a long time.
Below are some audio clips from last night. It is hoped to post some short video clips later in the week, together with a partial transcript of the meeting.
The audio clips are as follows. The description of the subjects covered by each speaker are very approximate.
- Welcome and Introduction: Angie Driscoll, Chairman of Birchanger Parish Council
- Introduction of Uttlesford speakers and general situation: Dawn French, Chief Executive, Uttlesford District Council (UDC)
- Handling Planning Applications: Nigel Brown, Development Manager, UDC
- Enforcement: Sarah Marshall, Planning Enforcement Team Leader, UDC
- Summary of speeches so far: Dawn French
- Remarks from PC Paul Brady, member of the Gypsy and Traveller Rural Engagement Team, Essex Police
- Address to the meeting: Mr. O'Connor, resident on the land in question
- Full meeting, including all Q and A