Resident of illegal Kettering village traveller site fined for planning enforcement notice breach

A resident of an illegal caravan site has been taken to court by the planning authority for continuing to occupy land despite a court order issued following a public inquiry.

Families living on fields they bought close to Loddington had been ordered to leave the Cransley Road site within six months and complete work to restore the land.

In 2019, eight members of the Irish Traveller Delaney family had chipped in to buy the farmland to give their children a chance to go to school and register with a GP.

The development on privately-owned land described by the then Kettering Borough Council as a ‘flagrant breach of planning permission’ saw a stop notice issued in October 2019 after the family had cleared the land and applied for retrospective planning permission.

Following an eight-day planning inquiry, Inspector John Murray dismissed the residents’ appeal to use the land for residential use, upholding the enforcement notice.

The requirements of the notice were to:

(1) Cease the use of the land for human habitation

(2) Permanently remove from the land all caravans, vehicles, buildings, portable toilets, machinery, equipment and personal items, and other items and works associated with human habitation

(3) Take up and permanently remove from the land all hard core, road planings and other such materials deposited in and on the land and forming areas of hard standing. Remove from the land all materials and rubble arising from this step

(4) Restore the land to its condition before the breach took place by re-seeding it with grass seed

To enable the Delaney family to restore the landscape they were given six months to leave the Cransley Road site – a deadline that expired at the end of February 2023. They were given until the start of May 2023 to re-seed the plot.

Appearing at Wellingborough Magistrates Court on September 12, 2023, Mr James Delaney pleaded guilty to breaching the enforcement notice and failing to comply with the terms of the notice.

The charges said: “Between March 1,2023 and May 10, 2023 at Northamptonshire being the owner of land situated at situated at at North East of Cransley Road, Loddington in the County of Northamptonshire was in breach of an enforcement notice issued on October 15, 2019 by North Northamptonshire Council in that failed to comply with to comply with the Notice – steps 1 and 2 by February 28 2023 and steps 3 and 4 by April 28 2023. Contrary to section 179(2) and (8) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.”

Taking into account Mr Delaney’s guilty plea, magistrates fined him £120 and ordered him to pay a surcharge to fund victim services of £48. He was also ordered to pay costs of £750.

A collection order was made with the total fine of £918 being paid at £40 a month starting on October 10, 2023.

Local authorities are legally required to provide space for travelling communities.

A Gypsy and Traveller Accommodation Assessment for North Northamptonshire was published in March 2019.

The report showed that an additional 110 pitches are needed for pitches for Gypsies and Traveller households, that met the planning definition, in North Northamptonshire.

Travelling Showpeople need 14 additional plots.