Travellers win appeal for village home - Yorkshire

From the Yorkshire Post

TRAVELLERS have been given permission for a permanent encampment in rural Holderness after successfully appealing against a council enforcement notice.

The family of Irish Travellers set up camp on the outskirts of Keyingham in October 2010, after buying the land, causing alarm among some villagers.

But planning inspector Jean Russell said there was already a shortfall of up to 26 Gypsy pitches in the East Riding and claimed “it would not set a precedent for future applications”.

She said: “The general need for and lack of alternative sites adds significant weight to the case for the development.”

She granted permission for four caravans for brothers Anthony, James and Hughie Doherty, who work as gardeners and buy and sell horses, and father Anthony Doherty senior and his two daughters. She has imposed a condition preventing commercial activities.

Mr Doherty junior had argued that they needed a site from which to travel, care for their horses, and school their children.

One of the grounds for refusal was that the Travellers had not demonstrated a need to be there. But the inspector said: “Travellers require habitable pitches to return to when they are not working, especially in winter. They cannot be expected to stay in unauthorised encampments that cause most tension in the settled community.”

Arthur Hodgson, the chairman of Keyingham Parish Council and a county councillor, said people were not happy with the decision, but if another caravan was moved onto the site they could have it removed. He said: “I don’t think the inspector has made the right decision. They have flown in the face of eight planning policies.”

East Riding Council said they were “disappointed” the appeal had been allowed and “that the inspector did not accept the council’s position which is that we are seeking to bring forward a planned programme of Gypsy sites through the emerging Local Plan.”