EXCLUSIVE Britain's traveller land-grab blitz revealed: The communities under siege from 'illegal' developments that have left locals 'powerless' to stop them

Daily Mail​

7 hours ago

Land-grabbing travellers are blitzing Britain, seizing secluded plots of countryside 'illegally' to turn them into vast caravan parks - with a new map today laying bare the scale of the crisis now blighting the nation.
Over the past two months, scores of communities across the UK have seen unauthorised camps springing up in isolated fields, prized rural green belts and protected national parks.
The blight has affected villages and towns in Buckinghamshire, West Sussex, Nottinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Gloucester, Devon, Worcestershire, Cheshire and in Hampshire's New Forest, MailOnline has found.
Terrified locals say they are 'powerless' to act, with some fearful of reprisals for speaking out against the shameless flouting of strict planning laws.
Meanwhile, furious MPs have lambasted the travellers' brazen tactics, which they say makes a 'mockery' of the building development rules millions of law-abiding Britons are forced to abide by.
However, those breaching the rules have insisted they are doing it because of the nationwide glut of official sites, and the 'stigma' nomadic residents in the traveller and gypsy communities face staying at the road side.
'We want to make a home where we can raise our children, giving them access to education and medical facilities that we never had growing up, we just want to improve our children's futures and our families' living standards,' one traveller said.
In the space of a few weeks, at least nine 'illegal' sites have appeared across the UK - all seemingly using a 'carbon copy' modus operandi. However, this is feared to be just the tip of the iceberg, with many more having been set up in previous years.
It's seen those behind the builds carrying out 'military-style' operations to rapidly construct new traveller developments before officials can stop them, transforming rural plots of field and grassland into sprawling, concreted caravan parks.
In Devon, a group of suspected travellers launched a blitzkrieg at the start of last week, using diggers and industrial kit to effectively demolish a former pony field in just 24 hours, leaving residents horrified.
'This is an atrocity... it's devastated the countryside with absolutely no thought for the harm it will cause,' one furious 47-year-old woman, who lives locally, told MailOnline.
'We feel absolutely powerless right now... It's one rule for one part of society and another rule for the other.'
A similar development took place on the outskirts of Burtonwood, near Warrington, in Cheshire, when bulldozers, excavators and HGVs took just 72 hours to turn a six-acre field into a large gravel car park over the last May bank holiday.
'I have never felt so impotent as a councillor in not being able to do something,' local politician Stuart Mann said. 'It was a military operation in terms of how [the travellers] achieved it.'
In the Worcestershire village of Hagley, more than a dozen trucks arrived on one field at 3.30am on Good Friday in April, working through the night to turn it into a caravan park, with hard-standing, fencing and even a children's play area installed.
'We're scared... we feel absolutely powerless right now,' one 42-year-old resident told MailOnline. 'Everyone has had to up their security now.
'All this has happened in the space of 48 hours. They were so fast. I've never known anything to happen so fast. It was insane.
'They arrived at 3.30am. It was non-stop. They arrived with lorry after lorry. Nobody knew what to do. Everyone was calling 101.
'It's made everyone feel a little uneasy. People are worried about their safety.'
Sleepy villages dotted around Nottinghamshire have also been targeted. In Balderton, a group of travellers used excavators, diggers and large trucks to flatten a plot of land 'dangerously close' to a major high-speed railway line.
The works took place during May's VE Day bank holiday and was completed in just three days before council officials were able to serve an enforcement notice ordering the remaining construction to be halted.
'We felt sick. Your stomach drops out,' one local said. 'We thought this was our forever home. We love the neighbours - then suddenly they turn up and build a traveller camp on our doorstep. It's going to reduce the value of properties here.'
A similar development took place a few miles north, 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, in a field off the A1, was also finished in a few days, with tarmac roads and fences installed. Locals said they had also seen septic tanks sunk, electricity and water illegitimately connected, and key drainage dykes filled to create the site access.
In Buckinghamshire, the rural village of Lee Gate was targeted over the May bank holiday, with diggers levelling a field without permission before five caravans and a static mobile home appeared.
The isolated community is just a few miles away from the former homes of Hollywood A-listers Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who once owned a property in Gerrards Cross - dubbed the 'Beverly Hills of Buckinghamshire'.
Other former celebrity neighbours reportedly included the 'Prince of Darkness' Ozzy Osbourne, Oasis mega star Noel Gallagher, and late British TV icon, Cilla Black.
An enforcement notice has been served by the local council. Meanwhile, worried residents are braced to stage a community meeting on June 24 to finalise a battleplan to tackle the travellers' unauthorised build.
One horrified neighbour, who asked not to be named, found out about the sudden encampment while on holiday in the Canary Islands with his wife.
'Our neighbour messaged us saying people with diggers, trucks - you name it - had arrived at 5.30am and were carrying out work,' he said.
'They just barged through the fence with a digger and built their own gate because the road with shared access to the field was too narrow.
'When we found out we were horrified. It was absolutely disgusting.
'Police were there within an hour but they couldn't do much to stop it.
'The council put a stop notice there. But the whole area has been flattened, six pitches created. Now we're stuck with them.'
In the Bedfordshire town of Felmersham, travellers moved onto a field they own in Pavenham Road over the Easter holiday and are now seeking to make it a permanent camp.
Bedfordshire Borough Council served the group with a temporary stop notice which bans them from spreading stones, gravel or tarmac on the land.
The council has since received a retrospective planning application for a change of use of the field, which, if approved, would see five residential pitches for 11 mobile homes and four caravans, parking, groundwork and landscaping.
During the VE Day bank holiday at the start of May a stunning patch of protected West Sussex countryside, in the heart of the South Downs National Park, was devastated by travellers.
The tranquil plot off Blind Lane, in Lurgashall near Petworth, was transformed into a building site as heavy machinery ploughed through the field without planning permission, turning it into gravel car park, with 10 caravans later appearing there.
It's unclear who was responsible for the unauthorised development. It has triggered legal action from Chichester District Council, which served a stop notice ordering all works to cease.
Andrew Griffith, Arundel and South Downs MP, was appalled by the unauthorised development and feared it was just one of a series of 'landgrabs' taking place nationwide.
'These are clearly deliberate and meticulously planned operations,' Mr Griffith, the Conservatives' Shadow Business and Trade Secretary, told MailOnline.
'In the Lurgashall case it took far too long for the local council to act leaving ratepayers and residents at the mercy of this devastating planning blight.
'It is clearly foreseeable that bank holiday weekends are the moment of maximum danger and yet that's when town halls fail to ensure staff cover.'
He added: 'It makes a mockery of a system where we all jump through lengthy and costly hoops to install a dormer window when such brazen breaches happen unchecked.'
Across the Sussex border and into Hampshire, the New Forest has also been impacted.
Residents living in the quintessentially British community of Burley have lashed out over the unauthorised development on the outskirts of the village.
Those behind the project have been accused of shamelessly flouting planning rules by paving over part of a field and installing a number of caravans and mobile homes.
It's led to a months-long row, with a judgement on whether a retrospective planning application to allow it to stay or not, set to be made in a matter of weeks.
However, it has sparked a fierce backlash, with one ex-minister raging those behind the scheme should have their 'civil rights... forfeited' over the flagrant rule break.
One villager fumed: 'The travellers have shown complete disregard for the community... It's a level of disrespect. They have come in and destroyed protected lands without permission.'
The woodland idyll, nestled between Southampton and Bournemouth, is home to about 1,350 people and is heavily reliant on tourism in the summer. It has no railway station, one primary school, a village shop and a sporadic bus service.
Those living there are fiercely protective of their historic home's unspoilt, natural surroundings and have been left outraged by the gypsy development.
The site, on a former pony field off Ringwood Road, was converted without permission several weeks ago. It's a stone's throw away from the luxury Burley Manor hotel, which is a medieval Grade II-listed building.
Those on the camp have since submitted a retrospective planning bid for two static caravans, two touring caravans, parking, bin and cycle stores, e-bike charging points, boundary fencing, and an extension of existing hardstanding.
MailOnline understands the site is home to two families, who own the land.
The proposals - which are yet to be decided by the New Forest National Park Authority (NFNPA) - triggered a furious response, with dozens of objections lodged.
Local Tory MP Sir Desmond Swayne is also among those attacking the development, which he says had 'alarmed' his constituents.
'It's not been helped by the rather aggressive sign put up, that strikes fear into the community,' he added. 'What sort of people are these, who are putting up this intimidatory sign telling people to 'keep out' or the dogs will get you'?'
A deadline for a decision on the application is July 2 - however, officials at the NFNPA hope to have made a judgement before this date.
However, former minister Sir Desmond feared the controversial scheme could be approved on the basis of 'human rights', allowing travellers to remain on the land instead of dismantling all the work that has already been undertaken there.
Hitting out, the New Forest West MP told MailOnline: 'When you break the law you should forfeit your civil rights. Breaches in the law – even in planning regulations - should not be whipped through on the basis of human rights.'
The application has been submitted by Michael Chalk and Tom Butler, who live on the site with their families.
Planning consultant Tony White, who is representing the pairs' development bid, told MailOnline: 'Nationally councils have persistently failed to meet the statutory obligations to provide sites and pitches to meet the identified needs of gypsies and travellers.
'Faced with tougher policing powers to prevent roadside stopping, many gypsies and travellers feel they have no choice but to move on to their own privately-owned land before obtaining planning permission and are often forced to do so because of prejudice they encounter when roadside.
'The site prior to the two young families moving on, consisted of a brick built stable bock, large area of hardstanding and paddocks, they have carried out very little work to facilitate the occupation of the site, all of which can and will be removed should they be unsuccessful in the planning process.
'It is recognised that some residents will have concerns about the change or by travellers moving in nearby, but Mr Chalk and Mr Butler have in large part been made to feel very welcome in the village and are looking forward to their children attending the local schools and the families integrating with the settled community.
'Mr Buttler would like to add that they wish to reassure those residents who have expressed to the Mail they have fears or concerns, that it is only Mr Chalk's family and my family, that intend to live here and we want to make a home where we can raise our children, giving them access to education and medical facilities that we never had growing up, we just want to improve our children's futures and our families living standards.'
Mr White added the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (Amended) contains provisions to 'regularise unauthorised works, through retrospective applications and lawful development certificates'.
'These are utilised for many reasons and by all sectors of communities, but I can assure you, that any decision on the planning application, will not be swayed or influenced by the applicants having moved on to their property ahead of the decision,' he said.
The news comes as the number of 'illegal' traveller sites being set up across the UK continues to soar, with local councils increasingly unable to remove them.
New planning policy announced by Labour housing secretary Angela Rayner in December will force councils to release green belt land for travellers to create permanent encampments if there is an 'unmet need'.
At present neither temporary or permanent travellers sites are allowed on green belt land as they fail to qualify as 'very special circumstances' - but that is about to change.
In the original consultation published to the National Planning Policy Framework in August, the document states: 'We intend our proposals to support the release of green belt land to address unmet needs for traveller sites.'
The response to the consultation, published in December, made clear that proposals should not be regarded as 'inappropriate' in cases where there is an 'unmet need' for the type of development - including traveller sites.
In January this year South Gloucestershire Council announced the location of 100 new traveller sites, many of them on precious greenbelt locations.
The plan also includes safeguarding 15 existing areas for travelling showpeople - and one new site for travelling showpeople in Pucklechurch.
The local authority was reprimanded by a government planning inspector back in 2022 for a 'history of policy failure' after failing to provide sufficient land for travelling communities.
The council has since proposed the 'expanding or intensifying' of numbers of already-existing sites and the creation of 14 brand new locations over the next 15 years.
That includes the safeguarding of greenbelt land in Pucklechurch and Hambrook for traveller communities to reside on.
Meanwhile, in Darlington a new site for travellers and Gypsies in Darlington has been approved after a litany of delays and refusals.
Previously planning offices said the Neasham Road site was 'not in a sustainable location' and would be 'visually intrusive within an open countryside location.'
The initial proposal called for five amenity buildings, five mobile homes and five touring pitches - but that was reduced to two of each type in amended plans submitted to the council in August 2024.
A planning report said: 'This small development would contribute towards the delivery of windfall Gypsy and Traveller sites within the borough.
'The location of the site was considered to be sustainable by the planning inspector (as was the adjoining site more recently by another Planning Inspector) and the visual impact of the revised development is not sufficient to justify a reason to refuse the planning application.'
The applicant said the need to address a shortfall of Gypsy and traveller overrode any considerations of natural beauty or environmental concerns, calling it 'a significant material consideration that would override any limited landscape impacts.'
The new sites are also by no means restricted to rural greenbelt locations though as London is set to get it first new permanent pitches in over 30 years.
It was announced in November last year that Haringey's Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) community were due to be handed new land to live on.
After a 'comprehensive review' of potential locations, the local authority said they could accommodate six permanent pitches on vacant council land.
Councillor Sarah Williams, Haringey cabinet member for housing and planning, said: 'I'm delighted to be announcing proposals for developing the first new Gypsy, Roma and Traveller sites in the capital for three decades.
'Not only is it a fitting move for our borough, which prides itself on being welcoming and diverse, it also aligns completely with our commitment as a council to providing 3,000 new, affordable and great quality homes for the future. This includes specialist housing to meet the needs of all of our communities.
'The Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community are among the most discriminated against groups in the UK and face critical challenges in accessing housing that meets their cultural needs.'
A new site has also been planned for Lewisham in southeast London, the first in the borough since the previous location shut down in 2009.
As well as the proliferation of new traveller camps, data shows that more and more enforcement notices are being issued against pitches, which often consist of one or more mobile homes erected on private land.
In Cheltenham, the council dealt with seven unauthorised sites last year - compared to none in each of the three years before that.
And similarly, Wokingham's borough council issued eight enforcement notices against unauthorised traveller sites in 2023, up from just one in 2022.
Meanwhile in Wiltshire, the council dealt had dealt with four unauthorised traveller sites by the end of October last year, compared to none the year before that.
Speaking previously to MailOnline on the condition of anonymity, one planning enforcement officer said: 'Over the past five years and certainly off the back of Covid there has been a sharp increase in the unauthorised development that we are seeing.
'Most of the enforcement appeals that we are dealing with at the moment concern traveller sites that have often gone up over the space of a long weekend.
'But it is a nationwide issue - most other councils are all having similar issues.'
The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents councils across the nation, said authorities were seeking to clampdown on unauthorised landgrabs.
An LGA spokesman said: 'Tackling them requires a multi-agency response and appropriate resources to support this.
'Councils take their planning enforcement powers seriously and work hard to balance the needs of all members of their communities.
'Where planning rules have been breached, councils will seek to take appropriate and proportionate action.'