Government urges clampdown on illegal encampments

[Paul Mobbs]

Oh well, there go the real "eco-developments"!

:-(

P.



http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/general/news/stories/2012/aug12/300812/300812_1

Government urges clampdown on illegal encampments

News and Blog > August 2012


Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has called on councils to clamp down on 
illegal encampments and to stop unauthorised traveller sites being set up.

The call came as the Department for Communities and Local Government issued 
new guidance which has been sent to all council leaders advising how to act 
swiftly.

The guidance sets out the strong powers councils and landowners have to 
remove illegal and unauthorised encampments, such as traveller sites, 
protest camps and squatter sites from both public and private land.

Councils have seen a number of cases of people setting up unauthorised 
encampments at weekends, for example, and using that time to develop land 
illegally while council offices are closed.

Setting up camps during a weekend often means that enforcement action 
needed to stop actions such as the cutting down of protected trees or the 
laying of concrete drives is delayed or too late.
 
The minister said: "I'm urging all councils to be on the front foot and 
ready to take action straightaway to stop illegal camps starting in the 
first place.

"Unauthorised development is totally unacceptable at any time but can often 
be more upsetting for local established communities when it happens while 
council offices are closed and people feel there is no one available to help 
them.

"There is never justification for people bypassing the planning rules that 
everyone else has to abide by and this guidance makes crystal clear what 
powers there are to stop unauthorised development before bigger problems 
arise."

He has urged councils to ensure planning officers are ready to take swift 
enforcement action and use the tough powers available to tackle rogue 
encampments.

The Government has already introduced new rights for travellers who play by 
the rules. These include stronger tenancy rights on authorised council 
sites and incentives through the New Homes Bonus scheme for councils to 
build more authorised sites. The administration is spending £60m on helping 
local communities establish properly approved and planned sites and earlier 
this year published new planning policy on traveller sites.

Meanwhile, in a related development, 15 families evicted from the 
unauthorised Dale Farm site near Basildon in Essex could be given a legal, 
permanent home under plans for a new caravan facility in the vicinity 
submitted by the Irish Travellers Movement in Britain (ITMB).

Basildon Council has confirmed it has received a planning application for a 
derelict site at Gardiner’s Lane South.

#Read the Department for Communities and Local Government news release.
   http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/2205993

# Access the summary of powers.
    http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/planningandbuilding/unauthorisedencampments
 


Roger Milne

30 August 2012

-- 

.

"We are not for names, nor men, nor titles of Government,
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God, and with one another, that these things may abound."
(Edward Burrough, 1659 - from 'Quaker Faith and Practice')

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Paul Mobbs, Mobbs' Environmental Investigations
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