Traveller site refused three times could go to Welsh Government appeal

Bruce Sinclair, Local Democracy Reporter

Plans for a Traveller site on the edge of a seaside village could go to appeal after being refused for a third time.

The application for Froghall Yard, Moreton Lane, Saundersfoot, proposed one static caravan, one touring caravan, a day room and ecological improvements.

Pembrokeshire Coast National Park planners rejected the latest application on October 21, following refusals in 2025 and earlier this year.

Nearly 300 people signed a petition against an earlier proposal. Saundersfoot Community Council also opposed the application by David ‘Dai’ Evans, submitted through Hayston Developments & Planning Ltd.

A supporting statement said Mr Evans came from a long-established Romany Gypsy family living on an overcrowded Traveller site in Pontypool.

It said he and his family had spent each summer in a touring caravan at the Saundersfoot site since the late 1980s, before he bought, cleared and refurbished it in 2023.

Previous applications were refused over harm to the landscape and a lack of capacity for caravan development in that part of the national park.

The latest application disputed responsibility for earlier clearance work, saying “many aspects of the site clearance were undertaken before the current owner/applicant bought the land” in 2023.

It added: “It is totally unreasonable and unacceptable by the authority to place all the blame on the applicant for these works.”

Saundersfoot Community Council objected again, alongside a “significant number” of residents, including a planning agent acting on behalf of local people.

Officers told the meeting they were considering an additional reason for refusal relating to concerns about connecting the site to the mains sewer.

Lynne Garnett, of the Travelling Ahead Community Planning Project, said prejudice against Gypsy and Traveller families “is enormous, as the orchestrated opposition to this one pitch has demonstrated”.

She said families in Wales were “forced into renting poor quality accommodation with no alternative” during a “chronic accommodation crisis”.

The applicant’s agent, Andrew Vaughan-Harries, urged planners to delay their decision while the foul-water issue was investigated, rather than “bringing this back for a fourth time”.

Speaking after the meeting, he said the latest application offered substantial ecological improvements, including planting 198 trees, creating Pembrokeshire hedgebanks and improving habitats for otters, birds and bats.

He argued that these measures had resolved the ecological grounds for refusal.

Sewer connection

Mr Vaughan-Harries said Welsh Water had questioned the viability of a sewer connection 500 metres away after previously issuing two letters of support.

The applicant had since identified a possible connection chamber on his land, but a meeting with Welsh Water was still needed to resolve the issue.

He acknowledged that concerns about the site’s appearance and capacity for caravans remained, but disputed their strength as grounds for refusal.

He also argued that Policy 53 in the national park’s local development plan supported sites of this kind.

After three applications, he said an appeal to Planning and Environment Decisions Wales, the Welsh Government’s planning appeals service, was likely to be the fairest next step.

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