Disabled Gypsy waits to hear outcome of Cudham site legal challenge - Kent

From the Westerham Chronicle

A DISABLED Gypsy must wait to hear the outcome of a legal battle to continue living with her three children on a site near woodland at Cudham.

Charmaine Moore asked one of the country's top judges, Mrs Justice Cox, to give her another chance at securing planning permission to live on the site at Archies Stables, Cudham Lane North, Cudham,

Now the judge has reserved her decision and will give it in writing later.

The latest move by Mrs Moore follows refusal of permission first by the London Borough of Bromley, then a Government planning inspector.

She hopes to win a ruling forcing the secretary of state for communities and local communities to have her case reconsidered.

The judge has reserved her decision in order to give it in writing at a later date.

Mrs Moore, who lives on the site with her 10-year-old son and two daughters, aged 13 and 14, applied for planning permission for change of use of the land from equestrian to gypsy caravan site with one pitch.

She claimed that very special circumstances justified grant of planning permission on the green belt site, as she is disabled with joint laxity and suffers from depression.

She argued that there are a shortage of gypsy and traveller sites in the area, and that without planning permission the family could be forced to live on the roadside.

However, the planning inspector who rejected her appeal in June 2011 found that the family's circumstances were not enough to outweigh the "considerable level of harm" the development would cause to the Green Belt.

Challenging that decision, Mrs Moore claims that the harm to the character and appearance of the area could be overcome by landscaping, if the caravan site was given time to blend in.

She claims that the inspector failed to take that into account, and failed to make his reasoning clear on this issue. She also attacks his failure to grant a temporary planning permission, pending the availability of additional sites, as unreasonable and irrational.

Two years ago we first reported Mrs Moore's case.

Neighbours in her residential road were angry the Gypsy site could be a permanent feature.

Houses on Cudham Lane North fetch up to £750,000.

Mrs Moore said she hoped to become part of the Cudham community, adding: "People hear 'Gypsy Site' and they automatically jump to conclusions.

"I see people from your culture on the news all the time involved in shootings or burglary, but I don't assume that everyone does those things.

"Even though I have to apply for permission to change the land to 'Gypsy Site', it is just me living on my own, with three children in a mobile home."

Mrs Moore was born on a site in Abbey Wood but has lived all over the country. She is unable to travel any longer because of her disability.