Council vows to take action at travellers' site

A council said it would serve enforcement documents after it was alerted to unauthorised works taking place to expand a travellers' site.

Central Bedfordshire Council said it was made aware of the work taking place in Tilsworth, near Leighton Buzzard, on Friday.

A spokesperson said a retrospective planning application was submitted on Friday but had not been received until Monday and had not yet been validated.

There is already a large site of caravan pitches on the edge of the village, but a traveller who lives in the area said those behind the recent development felt the existing plot was overcrowded.

A spokesperson for the council said it understood "the concern this is causing locally".

Its officers visited on Monday to "establish the facts and the nature and extent of the works", they said.

"Evidence was collected during this visit and provided to our legal services team for review," the spokesperson said.

"Based on the evidence gathered, enforcement documents have been drafted with a view to serving these later today."

The council was treating the issue as a "matter of urgency" and its officers would "take appropriate action where we have the legal basis and evidence to do so".

When a similar encampment appeared at nearby Flamstead in Hertfordshire, Dacorum Borough Council issued a stop notice and took legal action.

Residents told the BBC that machinery was used to create the new strip of land on Friday, and they had since counted about eight caravans parked there.

Travellers at the site told the BBC they did not intend to cause problems and they would meet with the settled residents to provide answers to any concerns.

Craig Smith, a traveller living in the area, said people at the site felt they had "overgrown" the plot.

"We have to try and buy farmers' fields if we can, disguise ourselves so that they don't recognise us as travelling people... then we have to go through the planning channels and they always say no," he explained.

"We don't want to upset anybody in the settled community, but we've got to live somewhere and our families are expanding at the same rate as everyone else's."

Sherrie Smith, chief executive of the Gypsies and Travellers Essex group, said disputes such as this were a result of a failing planning system.

"Priority number one solution is that borough councils meet their housing requirements for culturally appropriate accommodation," she said.

"All [travellers] want to do is be part of that community they move to and raise their families, educate them and get better health.

Do you have a story suggestion for Beds, Herts or Bucks? Contact us below.

Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.