New gipsy caravan site to be 'less intense'

A dispute over plans to create new caravan pitches on Wolverhampton Road in Penkridge has been raging for years, even reaching Secretary of State Eric Pickles.

Applicant William Lee wants to install six caravans, including four that are static, and two amenity blocks at New Acre Stables.

The original application had been for 19 caravans on seven pitches, as well as the two amenity blocks.

Philip Brown, the agent acting on behalf of Mr Lee, told a planning inquiry that the changes would mean a reduced impact on the green belt, adding that only a quarter of the land originally earmarked for the development would be needed.

He said: "Firstly, clearly this application is for a smaller site and therefore it is clearly a less significant development and has a less significant effect on openness than a development of the whole site.

"Secondly, when one compares what was proposed under the original application and what is proposed on the plot now, on the same area of land the original application showed seven caravans and two amenity buildings.

"Now it is six caravans and two amenity blocks."

He added: It is a less intense development than was previously proposed."

But Paul Turner, planning consultant for South Staffordshire Council, said: "The concern is that, taken on its own, this site is smaller, but the density is greater."

District councillor Len Bates said the proposed changes would be an 'inappropriate development in the green belt'.

He said: "We would suggest that the case for very special circumstances does not outweight the identified harm in this case. "

British traveller Mr Lee said he had applied for his family to live at other sites but all of them were full, adding that without planning permission they would be forced to live at the side of a road.

Mr Turner said the district council was looking into other potential sites for gipsy families.

Mr Lee, who currently lives at the site, won permission to build a 20-caravan camp on the land in 2011.

But members of Penkridge Parish Council wrote to the district council voicing their concerns.

The bid was initially rejected, following a High Court injunction stopping more caravans from joining 10 that had moved onto the site illegally a year earlier.

The family appealed against the decision, triggering a three-day public inquiry.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles intervened because of the proposals' size and location on the green belt land.

But the travellers were eventually granted permission to temporarily house caravans there.

A decision will be made in the coming weeks.