D-Day in villagers’ three-year fight for the heart of England - Warwickshire

From the Telegraph

For more than 1,000 days they have braved wind, rain and snow — and the occasional sunny day — to defend their village against the spread of an illegal Gypsy encampment.

Sheltered from the elements by only an old caravan, some tarpaulin and a wood-burning stove, a rota of volunteers has stood guard to prevent Travellers from erecting permanent pitches on a previously unspoilt corner of the green belt.

Now the people of Meriden are expecting to discover whether their three-year round-the-clock vigil has been successful.

A senior judge will this week hear a final plea by the Gypsy families to be allowed to appeal against Solihull council’s refusal to grant them planning permission for a permanent settlement.

If they lose, proceedings to evict them will begin at the end of the month.

This week’s Appeal Court hearing will be the culmination of a long-running dispute in which both sides have made repeated appeals to both council and courts.

While the Gypsies maintain that they simply need somewhere to live, the residents of Meriden say their aim is to protect their village from unsightly and inappropriate development.

David McGrath, one of the villagers, said: “They have bought the land cheaply and want to increase its value by forcing the council to give them planning permission, without any concern for the environment. This is about greed, not need.”

The dispute has its roots in the 2009 purchase of a six-acre paddock for £100,000 by Noah Burton, the head of a Gypsy family. He promised neighbours that he had no plans to develop the plot, and would simply use it to repair vintage cars.

But in 2010, adopting a tried-and-tested method employed by Travellers around the country, he took advantage of a May bank holiday — when council offices would be shut and officials unable to respond quickly — and moved his extended family’s caravans on to the land.

Mr Noah and his relatives set about digging up the turf in preparation for building permanent pitches for their homes. But on this occasion they failed to take into account the spirit and determination of the people of Meriden, a village close to Coventry that is traditionally regarded as the centre of England — a claim that is marked by a sandstone monument on the village green.

That evening, Jim Charlesworth, an 85-year-old RAF veteran who was decorated for bravery during the Second World War and who happened to be passing the field on his mobility scooter, spotted the new arrivals and raised the alarm.

Friends were soon phoning and texting each other and within minutes dozens of villagers had formed a human chain at the entrance to the field to prevent further incursions by other Gypsy families. They also prevented the delivery of building materials to create permanent pitches for the caravans already on the site.

Indeed, the impromptu picket line managed to persuade lorry drivers delivering tons of concrete and gravel to turn back.

Before long, the villagers’ blockade had become a permanent fixture, with the erection of a shelter on land owned by a local sympathiser a few yards from the entrance to the paddock. Volunteers, ranging from shopkeepers and pensioners to teachers and accountants, began taking it in turns to prevent further deliveries of materials.

The arrival of the Gypsies brought claims that the increased number of cars and vans going in and out of the site made the narrow country lane dangerous for walkers and other road users. The Travellers were accused of shouting abuse at the residents manning their camp.

The volunteers operate in two-hour shifts to ensure that there are always a couple of people keeping watch on the Gypsy site.

When the weather is particularly harsh they retreat inside the caravan, or warm themselves by the stove. The camp even has a bookshelf, stocked with some dog-eared novels, local guides and shopping catalogues, along with a notice board displaying newspaper cuttings charting the residents’ battle.

A “scoreboard” records the number of days the camp has been in place. Today it will mark 1,051.

Under the tarpaulin shelter, Nick Hone, 62, a retired geography teacher, is enjoying a cup of tea with Brenda O’Riley, 60, a catering worker and fellow volunteer. “I can see the field from my house and I was devastated by what they did to it, digging up the grass and parking their caravans all over the place,” she said.

Mr Hone explained what had made him devote his spare time to keeping an eye on the Gypsy site.

“I’ve lived in Meriden for 36 years and I’m passionate about protecting the countryside that surrounds it. I hate to see it ruined by an illegal development in this way by people using equal rights arguments,” he said.

It is this perception — that the Gypsies are exploiting notions of fairness and equal rights in order to strong-arm the authorities into granting planning permission — that has done so much to galvanise the people of Meriden.

The residents’ banners declare “Equal rights not special rights” and they are at pains to point out that villagers would never be granted permission to build a house on green-belt land.

Kelvin Jones, 60, a gardener, said: “This is designated agricultural land that could one day be used to grow food. If it’s built on, it will be lost forever.”

Another resident, Roy Robinson, 69, a retired car production worker, added: “I’m against green belt being destroyed in this way and I don’t want this influx of vehicles to continue or get worse.”

Jo Hipwood, 71, a retired hotel chef, said: “You can’t just stick a house up somewhere and expect to get planning permission, so why a caravan? We want the countryside around here to be protected. That’s what planning rules are for.”

The Gypsy families have been repeatedly refused retrospective planning permission by Solihull council and planning officials have also declared the camp to be illegal and ordered it to be dismantled.

Both sides have refused to budge, with the residents declaring that they will not go until the Travellers are successfully evicted.

Mr McGrath, a management consultant and former Birmingham city councillor, said: “We’ll go when they go. If they face no sanctions for their continued unlawful presence then we’ll be darned if we’re going to move.”

The campaign group formed by the villagers, Residents Against Inappropriate Development (RAID), claim that the Gypsies have spurned numerous offers of an alternative site for their caravans.

These included, according to RAID, a new £1 million site in the borough of Solihull, which the Travellers said was not built with their specific needs in mind, and another site near Warwick.

In March last year the Travellers failed in their attempt at the High Court to overturn a decision by Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary, to endorse Solihull’s refusal to grant planning permission.

In response they struck a deal with the council that they would quit the site, but only if they were given another 12 months to look for alternative accommodation.

It became apparent, however, that the Travellers had little intention of abiding by the agreement when they began lodging appeal after appeal against the council’s planning refusal, culminating in Tuesday’s court hearing.

While they have been given legal aid to pay for their long-running case, the residents have spent £90,000 in legal costs, all of it raised by their own efforts.

Mr McGrath, the chairman of RAID, said: “What took the Travellers a few hours to put in place has taken over 1,000 days to sort out.

“Of course councils should make proper provision for Travellers — just like anyone else — but it should be done on a plan-led basis, in consultation with residents and avoiding sensitive green-belt sites or areas of outstanding beauty.”

At the Gypsy site the Travellers are reluctant to talk to anyone they regard as outsiders. They mistrust the press as much as they do the authorities.

But one young mother did volunteer a defence of their actions. “Me and my kids have got to have somewhere to live, so why not here?” she said.

“We’re not doing any harm to anyone. All you hear from the villagers is that we’re a bad thing, but we’re not. We’re just human beings with families, like they are.”

Mr Burton has previously said: “I’m not here to p--- people off. We have to live somewhere. This is a fight for survival for us.”

RAID denies exploiting latent prejudices against Gypsy families in order to protect its own backyard. Mr McGrath said: “Gypsies have a long-standing tradition of working on farms in and around Meriden without any problems.

“But the actions of these Travellers are an affront to Travellers everywhere w