Travellers who built a caravan site in the shadow housing secretary’s constituency have been hit with a court order banning them from living there.

Around 30 cars, vans and diggers descended on a four-acre green space in the hamlet of Willows Green, near Felsted, Essex, under cover of darkness as the early May bank holiday weekend began.

They ripped up lush greenery in Sir James Cleverly’s Braintree constituency to tarmac the land and lay the ground for 12 families, retrospectively applying for planning permission.

An injunction against anyone living on the site was granted on May 7, a decision upheld by the High Court after it heard it was ‘fanciful’ to suggest families were on the site when the injunction was granted.

Sir James said the travellers were ‘exploiting’ enforcement laws by beginning construction on a Friday after council offices had closed for the bank holiday weekend.

He added residents faced ‘significant disruption’ and said the timing of the work was ‘clearly deliberate’.

Caroline Bolton, for the council, asked a High Court judge on Thursday to continue the injunction, saying there was nobody living on the site at the time it was originally granted.

In written submissions, she said it was ‘fanciful’ to suggest that families were on the site when the injunction was granted.

An army of workers descended on a four-acre wildlife haven in the historic hamlet of Willows Green, near Felsted, Essex, within hours of the council closing for the bank holiday weekend

The land had previously been lush and green. It was previously flagged as being at risk from traveller development

An outraged Sir James Cleverly, the shadow housing secretary, accused travellers of ‘gaming the system’

She said: ‘It is the claimant’s position that at the time of applying for the injunction, the site was under construction, not an occupied site.

‘The defendant’s position, in essence, is that there are 12 families with children all in occupation of the land prior to the injunction being served.’

She continued: ‘Regardless of the defendant’s position, they are in flagrant breach of the court order and they remain so if their evidence is to be accepted that they are currently in occupation of the land.’

Tahseen Choudhry, for the group of travellers, said they should be allowed to stay because of their right to a family life under the European Convention on Human Rights.

She told the court: ‘Why would someone carry their home around if they did not want to be living in it, if they did not want to be sitting in it?

‘That caravan is a home, that mobile home is a home, to the gypsy travelling community.’

She also said the council had described the caravans as ‘shabby’, adding: ‘As gypsies and travellers, that is their home, it is how they live.

‘It can be shabby, broken down, derelict, anything, that is their preference. No one can judge that.’

She continued: ‘My defendants are protected under the Equality Act 2010 and have protected characteristics due to their ethnicity.

‘Any reference to their homes, property or lifestyle has to be carefully defined.’

Mr Justice Ritchie described photos that had been given to the court as looking like a ‘rapid-action, pitch-building operation with heavy machinery’.

He also said it appeared to be a ‘let’s-do-it-quick-before-the-council-catches-us operation’.

The judge added: ‘There is no evidence that men, women or children were living, sleeping, eating, toileting or going to work at the site at that stage.’

In granting a continuation of the injunction, he said ‘residence at the land is prohibited’.

He continued: ‘I find the defendants’ evidence of residential occupation is full of holes.

‘It is as leaky as a sieve.’

Sir James said in May the development showed ‘why we have got to take action to make sure that building work like this, taking place outside office hours, clearly seeking to game the system, that we are able to take decisive and quick action’.

‘Because the local community here knows that this is going to be disruptive to them, and anyone who has tried to get a builder to start work after hours on a Friday on a bank holiday weekend will know that there’s something not right about this.’

Vegetation on the site, which sits in Sir James’s Braintree constituency, was ripped up to prepare the ground for a hardcore and tarmac base

About 30 vehicles, including cars, vans and several diggers, were brought onto the field under the cover of darkness 

In an earlier video, Sir James said: ‘We often see situations where they [travellers] move onto land that they own and without lawyers, without planning applications, they just build, build, build.’

He added: ‘No one else would be allowed to do so. And when the authorities try to take action, whether it be the council or the police they’re accused of racism to try and deter them from doing the right thing.

‘A system designed to protect people is being weaponised to allow them to do the wrong thing.’

The field that was unlawfully developed was sold by a farmer to a real estate company for £125,000 a year ago.

Since then, it is believed to have been marketed as about ten smaller plots, with fears that some had been purchased by members of the travelling community.

Using floodlights and generators, several men worked through the night to destroy the pristine countryside.

Residents, whose homes in the picturesque hamlet will overlook one side of the site, saw work begin.

One man in his 60s said: ‘The council was warned this was on the cards but just sat back and waited for it to happen.

‘The field was swamped with vehicles, noise and lights all through the night. No doubt by the time the council reopens on Tuesday there will be a fully-fledged caravan park opposite our homes.’