Landmark victory for Gypsy - Kent

From the Paddock Wood Courier

A GYPSY has won a landmark ruling for his caravan to be permanently sited in Paddock Wood after arguing he can't get a good night's sleep in a house.

Despite it "setting all kinds of precedents", on Monday planners defied their own advice to permit Buddy Smith to live in his son's field in Pearsons Green Road.

Mr Smith wants to leave his three-bedroom, semi-detached house in Mile Oak Road, complaining that he was "forced" to move there to get his children into mainstream education.

As part of the planning wrangle, his agent argued: "The failure to provide any further sites in the borough forced Buddy Smith into bricks and mortar, much to his distaste."

After Tunbridge Wells Borough Council admitted last week it had no idea how much space it needed to provide for Travellers – and wouldn't know until 2014 – planners are insisting any Gypsy homes are only given temporary permission for two years.

But Mr Smith, a self-employed horse dealer and refuse site manager, convinced councillors to ignore the rule and instead let him and his wife Genty live on the site for the rest of their lives.

He said: "I was born in a horse-drawn Gypsy caravan, brought up in one and that's the only place I have had a good night's sleep.

"I was forced to live in a house 15 years ago so my children could have an education.

"I pray I can go back to the way I started."

Mr Smith, whose son Mark already lives in a caravan in the same field, said delaying a decision to give him a permanent site for two years would leave him in a precarious position.

He said: "You know there will be a need for more sites and I can't risk giving up my home for a two-year site."

However, Councillor Ron Weeden warned that allowing the application would create problems.

He said: "It sets all kinds of precedents. Mr Smith says he needs to move out because the steps to his house might get too steep for him in old age.

"I could come here and say 'can I have a mobile home as I find it hard to get around my house'."

Mr Smith's application was the second Paddock Wood Gypsy site approved by councillors that night. The other one, a pitch the size of two caravans in Queen Street, was given temporary permission.

Last week the Courier reported how residents feared Paddock Wood was becoming a hotspot for Gypsies because it sits on the edge of the Tunbridge Wells and Maidstone boroughs, whose councils are unsure what to do with them.

see also: The Daily Mail - Gypsy wins right to live in a caravan after saying he couldn't get a good night's sleep in his three-bedroom home

The Daily Star - COUNCIL GYPSY WINS THE RIGHT TO SLEEP IN A FIELD