Council to take direct action at Shurlock Road if travellers do not leave voluntarily

The owner and occupants of the unauthorised traveller site at Five Oaks Farm, Shurlock Road, Waltham St Lawrence, are to be served notice that the council will take direct action to clear the land if they do not leave voluntarily.

The decision was made at a cabinet prioritisation sub committee meeting held yesterday (Thursday 14 February).

Cllr MJ Saunders, cabinet member for planning and property, welcomed the decision, saying: "The law-abiding residents of Waltham St Lawrence have lived alongside the illegal settlement for more than three years and we are determined that this situation will end.

"As cabinet member for planning and property I will not sanction any council act which challenges the love, life or liberty of any citizen without due and proper process. The council has followed and continues to respect that process, while it appears the landowner and occupants at Shurlock Road seek to exploit and frustrate it.

"The council is committed to the return of this land to a green and pleasant state and to recover from the landowner the council taxpayers' money spent to achieve this."

By law a 28-day notice must be served on the estimated 40-plus occupants. A date for the direct action will be decided and the occupants advised.

The travellers moved on to the site around 19 December 2009. The council served an injunction on 22 December 2009 limiting the number of caravans to the 10 already on the site and prohibiting further construction or development.

An enforcement notice - requiring the use of the land to stop and / or any buildings or structures without planning permission to be removed - was issued on 24 December 2009. Following an unsuccessful appeal by the landowner, Mr Mark Pickett, on 30 July 2010 the planning inspector extended the period for compliance with the notice to Monday 11 February 2013 at the latest.

Several visits by the council's enforcement team since Monday have confirmed the travellers are still there.

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