1 week Ago By [email protected] (Charlotte Phillips)
A high court appeal has found a council acted lawfully when refusing planning permission to allow Travellers to stay on a plot of land where enforcement officers had “smashed” down fences. In May 2017, Medway Council served an enforcement notice at Sharps Green in Lower Rainham Road in Rainham after caravans and mobile homes were put there without planning permission. At the time, those that were living at the site were given six months to restore it to its former state – which was not done.
In May the following year, a change of use application was submitted for the site to be used for keeping horses, along with with residential use for three Romani gypsy families, three static caravans and three touring caravans. Plans were submitted by applicants Ms Sarah Penfold and others who have not been named. However, this application was refused, and the inhabitants were ordered to leave the plot by September of that year – which they did.
The council then started taking enforcement action to clear it. Much later, in April 2020, building work began on the site which consists of seven plots, each individually owned, and three caravans were placed there. However, a change of use application was not submitted until October of that year.
Mr James Neill bought Plot C at the site in November 2020 and friends and family members bought the other plots at around the same time. He claimed he was not aware of the previous enforcement notice from three years prior when he bought the land. Medway council denied the application, invoking section 70C of the Town and Country Planning Act 1190 – which means a local planning authority can decline to determine a retrospective planning application if an enforcement notice has previously been issued.
Another enforcement notice was then served at the site. In May 2021 new plans were submitted before being rejected once again – with the council writing to the occupiers of the site the same month regarding the “ongoing breaches of planning control” as it was being used for residential purposes. Those living on the land were ordered to clear it by August 2021 which was not done.
In February 2022, KentOnline spoke with the group of Travellers living at the site after enforcement officers began tearing it down . Residents said they had received no notice the action was being taken that day to leave the site, with one person saying at the time: “We had women and children crying. We were woken up at 7am.
We had no notice, they just arrived and started smashing fences up. My four-year-old was hiding under her pillow." At that point, there were static caravans and wooden 'day houses' as well as gardens and play areas for children, horse stables, and a paddock on the land.
The next month, an application was submitted to build a one-bedroom house which was denied and diggers cleared the site shortly afterwards . In September 2023, plans were submitted once again to put caravans and mobile homes on the land - with the application highlighting the need for gypsy and Traveller sites in the area. The applicants were on a site in Essex at the time, which they had been told to leave by last February (2024).
But this application was denied in November of that year as the council exercised section 70C for the fourth time. The land was deemed “wholly unsuitable for residential accommodation” as it was considered to be a flood zone. A high court hearing took place in January this year to determine whether the council had acted lawfully by exercising section 70C.
The judgement was handed down on February 20, and “no legal flaw in the council’s reasoning” were found. The report states the enforcement history was “relevant and had been properly taken into account” and so the claim, which had been made by Mr James Neill, freehold owner of Plot C, was dismissed..
