Could a ‘Dale Farm’ incident happen in Wiltshire?

Councillor Ian West (Till and Wylye Valley) asked this question of the council. He also enquired what lessons Wiltshire Council has learned from the expensive and confrontational removal of travellers from the Essex site.

In reply the council says:

"The Dale Farm case demonstrates the weaknesses in the planning enforcement system which is currently designed to put 'hedges and checks' into the process and prevent local authorities taking any sort of immediate action against people who break planning regulations. Despite a number of opportunities, successive governments have declined to make breaches of planning control a criminal offence and consequently they have to be dealt with by the existing protracted enforcement system with its inherent rights of appeal and recourse to the courts.

Additionally, local authorities have no control over the sale of private land to individuals or businesses whose objective may be to gain advantage by developing it without the required planning permission. This leaves local authorities in the position of always having to react to events.

In this context, it would be unrealistic to provide a complete assurance that a similar situation would not arise in Wiltshire in the future, albeit probably of lesser scale due to unique factors surrounding the Dale Farm case. However, the following are all considered to provide greater assistance to the council in tackling any unauthorised gypsy and traveller sites at a much earlier stage, before they become well established and therefore reducing the risk of 'Human Rights' and other similar legal arguments being used to frustrate and delay the planning enforcement process:

• • The introduction by the Government, in 2005, of the power to issue a Temporary Stop Notice;
• • The adoption of the Council's enforcement strategy in 2010 which prioritises dealing with cases where serious planning harm is taking place;
• • The operation of a call -out system in enforcement to deal with serious breaches of planning control which occur out of normal office hours or at weekends;
• • Delegation of enforcement decisions to Officers;
• • Proposed amendments to planning legislation which are intended to limit the right to submit retrospective applications and reductions in the time allowed to submit appeals."