Travellers lose fight to stay on land at Theale - Somerset

From the Cheddar Valley Gazette

Two Traveller families living in a village without planning permission have lost their court battle to stay on the land - over the risk posed if a garden ever became overgrown.

High Court Judge Denyer, sitting in Bristol, rejected a challenge, brought by one of the Travellers, Marie Hughes, to a Government planning inspector’s decision to uphold Sedgemoor District Council’s refusal of planning permission for them to remain on the land at Yeo Moor Drove, Theale.

The decision was swung over a sightline from a difficult access onto Yeo Moor Drove on the B3139 and what would happen if that sightline became lost if a neighbouring garden become overgrown.

Judge Denyer ruled that the available sightlines relied on by Mrs Hughes are dependent upon views being obtained over a cottage garden to the left of the access, and were dependent on a well-mown lawn.

He said: “The appellant has no control over this area. Although the wall may have been lowered at some time to facilitate this visibility, no evidence has been provided to show that there is an enforceable condition on a planning permission to maintain sightlines over the garden.

“Given the height of the garden if it became unkempt or even fairly low level shrub or flower planting took place, this visibility could be so severely restricted that only minimal sightlines would be available.”

The ruling leaves Mrs Hughes, her husband and two children – one six, the other nine months – and the other family, the Attwells, who have a six year old and another child on the way, at risk of eviction by the council.

In the decision under challenge, taken in August, the inspector found that the development would cause “serious detriment” to the character and appearance of the area, and that another weighty factor against it was the serious deficiency in access from Yeo Moor Drove onto the B3139 as a result of the lack of control over the sightline to the east.

Judge Denyer said he did not dismiss the appeal lightly, not wishing to disrupt family life and the children’s education. But he had to balance such matters against the harm caused if the appeal was allowed.

Mrs Hughes’ solicitors argued that the visibility at the junction was, at its best, a very weak finding, and probably wrong, so it should have been disregarded.

They claimed that it should have been comprehensively outweighed by the need to have regard to the best interests of her children.

Judge Denyer defended the planning inspector’s opinion, saying: “In my view he was entitled to conclude that the local authority did not have sufficient control over the land at the left of the junction to ensure that adequate sightlines would be maintained, by which I mean sightlines which complied with relevant guidance and which are essential for ensuring safety at road junctions. In other words this was not a ‘weak’ finding.”

Rejecting the claim that the inspector should nevertheless have granted a temporary permission, the judge said that the inspector concluded that even a temporary permission of between the three to five years “would potentially expose site users and others on the public highway to hazards over that period and the risk is too great”.

The site in Theale has been occupied by travellers since April 2009 when planning permission was first sought through the Romany Gypsy Advisory Group. The plan was turned down by Sedgemoor, which led to an appeal being lodged with the Planning Inspectorate.