Unauthorised traveller encampment given deadline to clear site

Travellers at an unauthorised encampment on grassland in Darwen have been given 11 months to clear the site unless their backdated planning application to develop it is passed.

A government planning inspector has upheld Blackburn with Darwen Council’s enforcement notice served on John Young, the owner of the land at Hall Moss Farm – close to Whitehall Park.

But the judgement has extended the deadline for the site to be returned to its original condition from nine months to 11.

Following protests about the encampment the authority issued a ‘stop’ notice in July after hardcore was laid to make way for 18 caravans – of which six are permanent – at the site.

It required all engineering operations on the land to cease.

The notice was to stop the unlawful residential use of the land there, requiring the removal of all caravans.

It set out that the land must also be returned to the condition it was before the unlawful encampment within a reasonable timeframe which the council fixed at nine months..

Following an appeal by Mr Young, the inspector has upheld the council’s enforcement notice.

However, the nine months originally specified from July 2024 has been extended to 11 months with effect from April this year.

This is so that a decision can be made on a retrospective planning application that was registered in January.

The application seeks a change of use of the land from agriculture to a Gypsy caravan site with six plots – each with a static and two mobile caravans.

It also seeks permission for a utility block, porous stone hard standing and associated fencing.

West Pennine ward Conservative Cllr Julie Slater said: “I am pleased the enforcement notice has been upheld if not at the time extension.

“Residents do not want them up there in view of the damage to the park and surrounding area.

“I hope the council can find them somewhere else.”

The inspector’s ruling says: “The evidence indicates that when the notice was issued there were three traveller pitches on the land.

“However, the evidence indicates that the intention was to create six traveller pitches on the land given the submission of a planning application.

“This planning application was registered on January 6 2025.

“The statutory consultation period ends on March 31 2025.

“On the evidence before me, a planning application decision cannot therefore be made until April 1.

“There is no compelling evidence before me to indicate that it would not be possible to find an alternative site elsewhere in the area within nine months, including obtaining the necessary planning permission and putting in place the required infrastructure to enable occupation by the extended family.

“Such a process need not therefore mean that the family had to resort to a roadside existence if the notice was upheld.

“It would not, in my judgement, be reasonable for the appellant to start planning to find and/or to secure another site elsewhere to meet the accommodation needs of the extended family prior to knowing the outcome of the retrospective planning application.

“In this regard, I find that the nine-month period should start from April 2025.

“I shall therefore extend the compliance period from nine to eleven months.”

If the planning application is refused Mr Young would still have a right of appeal.