The number of ‘illegal’ traveller sites being set up across the UK is on the rise with local councils increasingly unable to remove them, a planning enforcement officer has claimed. 

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 greenbelt sites.

The plan also includes safeguarding 15 existing sites 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.  

Now the council has 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 sites, 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 to MailOnline on the condition of anonymity, a 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.’ 

It comes as many local authorities are finding themselves unable to shut the developments down with the cases increasingly being won on appeal due to a nationwide shortage of traveller sites.

According to the Friend, Families and Travellers association more than two-thirds of local planning authorities have failed to include traveller sites in their local plans. 

In their analysis of 100 councils in 2023, they found 64 per cent had not allocated sites despite 29 years of government policy requiring them to do so. 

Speaking of the difficulties councils are facing to shut down the sites, the enforcement officer said: ‘We have been fairly successful at appeals up until now but I feel that is about to change. 

‘Inspectors are now putting more and more emphasis on how there are not enough traveller sites in local plans. 

‘It is up to the council to find these sites but it is incredibly difficult as no one wants to give up their land.’ 

It comes as a traveller was told in September last year that he could continue living in a mobile home in a field in Oxfordshire- despite the objections of dozens of residents and the local council. 

Nelson Rogers, 37, successfully appealed to the Planning Inspectorate after he installed, without planning permission, a static caravan and septic tank on land opposite the village cemetery in Goring-on-Thames in September 2022. 

Two months later, South Oxfordshire District Council issued him an enforcement notice demanding the work be undone within four months. 

However, Mr Rogers, appealed, resulting in an inquiry that was heard by planning inspector Thomas Shields in April last year. 

He argued that he should be granted permission for the mobile home as the district council did not have a five-year supply of traveller pitches.

The appeal was granted, despite concerns being raised by dozens of local residents that the development was situated in an area of outstanding natural beauty. 

One local wrote on the public planning portal: ‘The adjacent burial ground is a place for quiet reflection and grieving when needed and any building would disrupt this. 

‘There should be no change of use and no development on this site and the mobile home which is currently there should be removed.’

Another added: ‘This is one of the very few areas of outstanding beauty which we must preserve for future generations to experience the peace, tranquility and solemnity, and to escape the pressures of our ever increasing hectic lives. 

‘The noise created by such a development – with a loud generator running day and night – would be disturbing and intimidating to people at their most vulnerable time and during funerals taking place.’

Meanwhile, West Berkshire Council issued three enforcement and stop notices against ‘unauthorised’ mobile homes and caravans in Brimpton Common, near Newbury, last year alone.

And in April, the local planning authority refused plans to put a traveller site on land between Brimpton Lane and Blacknest Lane following objections from residents. 

However, the application later was placed under appeal with a decision due to be made by the Planning Inspectorate.

West Berkshire District Council is currently three pitches short of meeting its overall requirement for traveller sites, local newspaper the Gazette has reported.

One local resident said: ‘I object to the application, first and foremost; the applicant has no respect for the process and rules which is displayed by the illegal entrance that has been created.

‘It appears there is a sense of I will do what I want with no care for process.’

‘The size of the site will not be able to accommodate a home, caravan and day room as to be able to enter through the illegal entrance would not be fit for this so there would be more need for more destruction of trees to let the dwellings into the proposed site,’ they continued.

It comes as a father-of-three at war said his family will have to be ‘dragged’ off the site in order for them to leave.

The family of travellers said in November last year they will resist any efforts to remove their caravans from behind a row of houses in Billingford, near Dereham in Norfolk.

Rhys Clapham pitched up with his partner, three children, over half a dozen large dogs and a Chihuahua on the land off Festival Road after buying the site earlier this year.

And with a view to living at the site permanently, they submitted a planning application with Breckland Council to use the land for two residential static caravans and two touring caravans.

After being refused planning permission following dozens of objections from locals, he started completing sewage works on the one-acre site in January.

Then on October 5, when he gained permission from a neighbouring farmer to use their field for access he moved his static caravan onto the site.

The Clapham family have appealed the refused planning permission and also an enforcement notice issued by Breckland Council. 

Mr Clapham said he’ll be made homeless if planning chiefs force him off and told the EDP ‘they’ll have to drag me off the site’ for him to leave.

‘It’s a tiny little site. I don’t know what everyone’s problem is,’ he said.

He added that people in area are ‘literally yelling at us’ and that he has had ‘stuff stolen’ while his dog kennels and caravans have been ‘smashed up’.

Speaking to MailOnline, Mr Clapham, 34, said: ‘With travellers, you get so much stigma your whole life. For a long time, my family has not mentioned being travellers because of the attention and stigma. You don’t get work.

‘I’m from Norfolk. I grew up around Lakenham. My granddad and my dad lived in a house.

‘I came back to live as a traveller ten years ago because of my background and that’s the way I want my children to live.

‘I have a two-year-old and 13-year old boys and a 16-year-old daughter. They’ve pretty much known traveller life their whole life.

‘I would be a good neighbour. The [objections about being gypsies] is disgraceful. I’m not interested in causing any trouble.

‘There’s a few neighbours I get on with. But a few are bigots and the council has done everything for them. Some of the [online] comments have been horrendous. It’s racism and you would not get that with blacks and foreigners.

‘I paid for the land and am not asking anyone for money and I’m still getting grief.’