Agenda item

(Director of Planning and Economic Development)  To consider the attached report.

The Committee considered a report on the current position regarding the numbers of authorised and unauthorised (including tolerated) pitches within the District and on what further action, if any, should be taken in relation to five sites with unauthorised and tolerated pitches.

Attention was drawn to the Department of Communities and Local Government consultation on “Planning for Traveller Sites” which had been considered by the Planning Services Scrutiny Panel on 14 June and by full Council on 28 June 2011.  Members noted that the changes being proposed by the Government included replacing existing circulars with one Planning Policy Statement which would (a) have the overriding aim of ensuring fair treatment for those in traveller and settled communities; (b) align Gypsy Roma Traveller pitch provision more closely with guidance in Planning Policy Statement 3 which dealt with permanent housing provision; (c) enable local planning authorities to make their own assessment of need for the purposes of planning; (d) limit the opportunities for retrospective planning applications in relation to any form of development; and (e) ask local planning authorities to treat favourably Gypsy Roma Traveller pitch applications for temporary permission in the absence of an identified five year supply of such sites.

The Committee received details of records kept by the Environment and Street Scene Directorate (caravan counts and site licences) and the Planning and Economic Development Directorate (planning application and appeal decisions).  Analysis of the combined records showed that in July 2010 the unauthorised percentage of total caravans had been 31% whereas in January 2011 the unauthorised percentage of total caravans had been reduced to 16%.  This reduction had been primarily due to the permanent permission (on appeal) being granted for the Holmsfield Nursery site in Meadgate Road, Nazeing.  Members noted that the increase in the number of authorised pitches, with the consequent reduction in the number of unauthorised caravans, had been linked to an increase in planning applications from the Gypsy Roma Traveller community and this in turn had been linked to the public consultation exercise undertaken between November 2008 and February 2009 in relation to the Development Plan Document required by the previous Government’s Direction.

The Committee noted that officers had hoped that the remaining unauthorised or tolerated sites would be the subject of future applications to enable the Council to reach decisions on all of the outstanding cases. However, this had not yet been achieved and the Committee were asked to consider what future action, if any, should be pursued in relation to the five sites with unauthorised and tolerated pitches.  The Committee discussed the circumstances of the five sites.

            RESOLVED:

            (1)        That the current position regarding the numbers of authorised and unauthorised (including tolerated) pitches within the District be noted;

            (2)        That in relation to Devoncot, Carthagena Estate:

            (a)        the occupants be given one further final period of three months in which to submit a planning application for the stationing of three caravans on the site; and

            (b)        in the event of an application not being received within that timescale, proportionate enforcement action be taken subject to sufficient evidence of a breach of planning policy and it being considered expedient to take such action;

(3)        That in relation to Richards Farm, Sedge Green the outstanding planning application for the stationing of four caravans be determined within the next eight weeks;

(4)        That in relation to land opposite Oakwood, Tylers Cross and Rosewood, Tylers Cross proportionate enforcement action be taken subject to sufficient evidence of a breach of planning policy and it being considered expedient to take such action;

(5)               That in relation to Horsemanside Farm, Stapleford Abbotts, in the event of an unauthorised caravan still being stationed on the land at the July 2011 caravan count:

            (a)        the occupants be given one further final period of three months in which to submit a planning application for the stationing of the unauthorised caravan on the site; and

            (b)        in the event of an application not being received within that timescale, proportionate enforcement action be taken subject to sufficient evidence of a breach of planning policy and it being considered expedient to take such action.