Travellers site – Land Adjacent To And Rear Of Culhams Mill

Dear Resident,

Whilst we are still waiting for the Planning Inspectorate to set a date to hear the Traveller and Gypsy appeal against the enforcement of the refusal for retrospective planning permission for thirteen residential caravan pitches on the land off Culhams Mill, we thought we should share some news which we found encouraging.

Many of you will be aware of the unauthorised Traveller encampment in Cufaude Lane, Bramley.  To varying extents there has been unauthorised residential development on this land since 2014.  Development has increased significantly over the last two years and there are now a number of caravans, mobile homes and other buildings established there.  The case finally went in front of the Planning Inspectorate in April this year and the Inspector has published his decision on Tuesday this week.

The twenty two page report can be seen at  https://tinyurl.com/CLAppeal and the full history of the case can be found on the BDBC planning portal at  https://tinyurl.com/CL-BDBCDOCS

We won’t make an attempt to summarise the entire report but the conclusion is that the appeal has been refused and a requirement has been placed upon the occupiers to vacate the site within the next twelve months.  If the occupiers remain longer than this then BDBC is within its rights to pursue enforcement and subsequent eviction.  Key planning issues that were considered were the location on a flood plain, the visual impact, the impact on highways, intentional unauthorised development and the lack of other available sites.  It seems that the deciding factor in the Inspector’s decision was the fact that the site is located on a flood plain.  We believe that this will have significant consequences for the Silchester site as it is located directly adjacent to Silchester Brook and the field has a history of flooding.

We will continue to keep you posted on any further developments.

Regards

Steve Spillane, Simon Mahaffey and the team.

Calleva Society

callevasociety@gmail.com
www.callevasociety.org or to donate https://callevasociety.org/make-a-donation/