From EADP24
An application by Reuben Leveridge and Nigel Cutting to use a former sewage plant off Church Road, Sea Palling, as a site for two caravans, two mobile homes and two sheds was approved by the council’s development committee yesterday.
Mr Leveridge and his family, and Mr Cutting have been living on the land for the past eight weeks.
Mr Cutting arrived there after quitting his 25-year site on Happisburgh’s crumbling cliff top.
The application had been recommended for refusal because county highways officers were concerned at extra traffic at the junction of Stalham Road and Church Road, which they said could amount to 16-20 movements a day.
But Gypsy spokesman Candy Sheridan, a former NNDC member, said that view was “shameful” as no other application on Church Road over the past 13 years had been turned down on highways grounds.
The Gypsies estimated the site would generate about six vehicle movements a day.
Ms Sheridan said the two men were well-known in the community and she had been working with them for four or five years to find suitable land.
NNDC was supposed to identify a five-year supply of land for Gypsies within the district but this had not happened and people had been forced to “hide in the woods.”
Members heard that Mr Leveridge had agreed to built a sewage plant on the site and that the pair would be paying council tax so that their rubbish would be collected from wheelie bins.
Speaking after the 10-2 vote, Mr Leveridge said: “I’m very happy. I think it’s a sensible decision. A lot of people think we have moved on there illegally but there has been no cost to taxpayers. I have bought and paid for the land.”
Mr Cutting added: “It’s nice to be accepted into the community.”
The approval has been given specifically to the two men and lasts for three years during which time traffic will be monitored. It excludes any business use of the site.
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