EXCLUSIVE 'Land-grabbing' travellers were 'lucky not to have caused a train crash' after using huge diggers to build an 'illegal' camp feet away from a major high-speed railway line, expert says

Daily Mail​

06-06-2025

'Land-grabbing' travellers were lucky not to have caused a catastrophic train crash after using huge diggers to build an 'illegal' camp feet away from a major high-speed railway line, an expert has warned.
Villagers living in the sleepy community of Balderton were left horrified by the development of an unauthorised site right next to one the area's busiest rail routes.
Builders arrived in force during the VE Day bank holiday weekend last month to convert a field off Bullpit Road, in Nottinghamshire, into the new camp.
Excavators, diggers and large trucks were seen on the grassy plot, which was flattened and gravelled over in less than 72 hours - all without planning permission.
One ex-soldier, who spent 22 years in the Royal Engineers before moving into health and safety and construction, said the works risked triggering a catastrophic rail crash.
The Gulf War veteran, who lives locally, also chillingly claimed it was a miracle excavators did not damage the railway line or accidentally strike high-speed trains, which can race just feet from the new camp at a blistering 125mph.
'It brought a chill to my spine,' the retired Warrant Officer 1 told MailOnline. 'It's a busy line. The trains won't be able to stop, whizzing past the crossing at 125mph.
'It doesn't bear thinking about if you made a mistake. All it would have taken would have been for an excavator to have over-reached and hit a train passing. Then you would have had something really serious on your hands.'
The retired Royal Engineer - who was previously an instructor at the regiment's prestigious engineering school in Chatham, Kent - added: 'We would have had to jump through hoops for months with Network Rail to do what they did that close to the northern main line.'
An enforcement notice was later served by Newark and Sherwood District Council on May 8 - days after the works began - ordering the unauthorised construction to stop.
A retrospective planning application for ten individual pitches, each with a static caravan and touring caravan, and ancillary hardstanding, has since been submitted by the landowner.
However, locals fear the new site will prompt house prices in the area to 'plummet'.
And concerns have also been raised about the risk posed by the camp's access, which is next to a busy level crossing.
Neighbours fear travellers turning into it could block the road, leaving drivers stranded on the tracks as the barriers come down.
One local, who asked not to be named, told MailOnline they were shocked when the unauthorised encampment appeared.
'We felt sick. Your stomach drops out,' they said. 'We thought this was our forever home. We love the neighbours then suddenly they turn up and build a traveller camp right on our doorstep. It's going to reduce the value of properties around here.'
The retired soldier - who during the first Gulf War in 1990 helped build runways for military jets in the Middle East - added he was stunned by the speed of the work at the field.
'I know how to move a lot of stone with a lot of tippers, bulldozers and excavators quickly. So, to do all this in 72 hours takes a huge amount of planning. It was literally like a military operation,' the engineer said.
The development in Balderton is not the only one to have sprung up around the area in the past few weeks.
A similar development took place north of the community, between the nearby villages of Weston and Egmanton.
A huge 40-pitch caravan site was built over the Easter bank holiday in April without planning permission.
The site, based on a field off the A1, was completed in a matter of days, with tarmac roads and fences.
As well as roads built on the camp, locals said they had also seen septic tanks sunk, electricity and water illegitimately connected, and key drainage dykes filled to create the site access.
Both the plots in Balderton and Weston appear to be latest in a trend exposed by MailOnline which has seen fields unlawfully developed into traveller sites.
Groups across the UK have been accused of carrying out brazen bank holiday 'landgrabs' to rapidly build camps under the noses of council chiefs while their offices are closed.
Allegedly weaponising the national breaks, industrial diggers, excavators and lorries carrying gravel, are mobilised to rip up and pave over fields in protected green belts during 'deliberate and meticulously planned' operations.
Cynically, the 'illegal' conversions are done without any planning permission, flouting development rules - with 'retrospective' applications later submitted to councils to allow the newly-constructed sites to remain.
Since April, locations across the country have seen a sudden surge of developments - with the bulk taking place on the Easter, VE Day and late May bank holidays.
An investigation by MailOnline has revealed similar unauthorised 'landgrabs' blighting villages and towns across Buckinghamshire, West Sussex, Nottinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Gloucester, Worcestershire and Cheshire.
During a fiery village meeting about the new site in Weston, furious residents feared the area would not be able to cope with the sudden surge of travellers.
'There's 40 caravans, so maybe 160 people - we don't have a shop, we don't have buses, the school can't take them,' one person said at the recent public meeting, as reported by the Newark Advertiser.
'What are they going to do? It'll increase stress on services, and they'll be bored and get into anti-social behaviour and it will increase stress on the police.
'There's been noise and light pollution all night, and intimidation. When I first came here I never felt so safe — I daren't leave my house because of this. I can't take it.'
There is a large gypsy and traveller community around Newark area, with sites dotted across the district.
However, the Labour-run authority overseeing the district is facing an accommodation crisis for its nomadic residents, with a recent assessment saying at least 169 new pitches need to be made by 2034 to house travellers.
In a statement about the development in Bullpit Road, a council spokesman said: 'Newark and Sherwood District Council has been working diligently to find a solution to address the unauthorised development on Bullpit Road, Balderton.
'It is extremely disappointing that the occupants chose to ignore the requirement to secure planning permission and undertook construction works without permission and during the night.
'In an ideal world, the council would have the powers to step in straight away, stop the works, and clear the site. Sometimes we can do this, for example, if something is likely to be a danger to the public or create irreversible damage to a heritage building.
'But in regards to Bullpit Road, this isn't the case, and so we have to find another way to address the unauthorised development.'
Network Rail confirmed it was not consulted prior to the work at the camp taking place, with the authority receiving its first notice on May 28 via the council.