Travellers’ site application rejected by Moray councillors

From The Moray Council

Moray councillors today turned down a retrospective planning application for an unauthorised site set up by a family of Gypsy Travellers.

They also approved enforcement action which would seek to have the site vacated and cleared within 18 months.

The unauthorised site at Doohill, near Lhanbryde, was developed in 2009 and a subsequent planning application was refused by Moray Council’s planning and regulatory services committee in February 2011.

That decision was upheld following an appeal to the Directorate for Planning and Environmental Appeals in July 2008.

Earlier this year councillors agreed to defer enforcement action to allow the family to submit an application for temporary planning consent.

The family subsequently lodged an application for a temporary three-year approval and at today’s meeting planning officers put forward a recommendation that temporary approval be granted for 18 months.

However, following a hearing at which objectors and a representative for the applicants presented their cases, the planning and regulatory services committee unanimously rejected the application on the same grounds as the original application.

Councillors agreed that the occupants should be given a reasonable time to leave the unauthorised site and restore it to its previous state and approved enforcement action which would aim to have it vacated and cleared within an 18-month period.

see also seanmorton.org.uk Council refuses permission for Doohill Travellers site