Basildon District Council have launched a High Court challenge to a decision by the Environment Secretary to allow three gypsy caravans to remain on green belt land against a planing inspectors recommendations.
The council originally refused planning permission for the siting of mobile homes on land at Little Meadow, The Lily and The Paddocks, all at Grange Road, North Benfleet, Basildon. The inspector who considered the three applications on appeal agreed with the councils decision, finding that there were no very special circumstances justifying development that would harm the openness of the green belt.
However, the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions allowed the appeals despite the inspectors recommendations. He considered that the inspector had given insufficient weight to the personal circumstances of the applicants, who were all gypsies, and in particular to the importance of avoiding disruption to the education of five children living in the caravans.
Michael Bedford, counsel for Basildon, argued before Ouseley J yesterday that the Secretary of State had not been entitled to take these personal circumstances into consideration, and that his decision to give more weight to them than to the harm to the green belt was unreasonable.
Mr Bedford contended that the inspector had identified the significant need for gypsy sites in the area, to provide a settled base for the families and to enable the regular attendance of the children at school, but had considered that they did not outweigh the harm to the green belt.
The hearing continues.
PLS News 8/12/00
