Appeal hearing over Gypsy site - Wiltshire

From the Salisbury Journal

AN illegal Gypsy site has been in the spotlight again as the owner and his family appealed against an enforcement notice last week.

David Cooper and his family have already had a planning application to turn land at Hillbilly Acre on Southampton Road into a four-pitch Gypsy site refused by Wiltshire Council, and a planning inspector backed the council’s ruling last July.

But on Thursday an appeal hearing was held as Mr Cooper argued against the enforcement notice issued by the council demanding he undo work including construction of decking, hard surfacing and outbuildings.

Mr Cooper argues the development should be allowed, that enforcement action is too late, as four of the structures have been on the land for more than three years, and the requirements of the notice are excessive.

Residents in Alderbury and Clarendon have been fighting the plans since April 2011 and turned out in force at the hearing to make sure the inspector heard their arguments against the work and the Greenfield site, which is next to Grade I and Grade II listed properties.

Representing the council, David Pearce said: “We have heard no evidence to justify why those buildings should exist on that site. The harm that results from them being there is unmitigated.”

He said the starting point has to be the recent inspector’s decision which identified the harm to the adjacent listed buildings. The council also argued Mr Cooper could not prove the buildings were built before October 2008.

A report will follow with the inspector’s ruling in due course.