Selby District Council secures court order over Travellers’ site at Carlton - Yorkshire

From the Press

COUNCIL chiefs have obtained a court injunction to prevent any more Travellers settling on land next to an official caravan site near Selby.

The district council took swift legal action after vehicles including caravans and JCBs appeared on land adjacent to the site at Carlton earlier this week.

It is understood that a rough access road on to the private land has also been created.One resident contacted The Press to say he had seen several JCBs on the site at Race Lane/Lynwith Lane and also workmen building a roadway into the site and creating hard standing surfaces.

He claimed an area about four times the size of the original site had been cleared. “I have contacted Selby District Council but they have said that they can not give me any information,” he said. “Could you find out what’s happening please?”

A council spokesman said it had been to the site to investigate after being contacted by a member of the public about the arrival of a number of vehicles on the land, including caravans and JCBs.

The authority had since sought, and been granted, a court injunction to prevent any further development on the site, including the arrival of other caravans.

He said enforcement action against what had already been brought onto the site would be a separate issue. “The land does not currently have planning permission for such development, nor is there a planning application pending,” he said.

“We’ll be monitoring compliance with this court order. We will now look at any further enforcement action; the extent of which depends on a number of different factors.”

He said the authority knew that the issue had caused some concern in the local area, which was why it had acted quickly to uphold the planning laws.