Traveller site wins planning inspector appeal

Alec Doyle, local democracy reporter

A gypsy traveller site on agricultural land has been granted on appeal by Welsh planning inspectors.

Planning and Environment Decisions Wales (PEDW) said in its ruling that Flintshire County Council was ‘failing to meet its statutory duty’ to gypsy and traveller families by having no strategy in place for those with an immediate need for accommodation.

It also stated that when the applicant and his immediate dependants cease to occupy the land, it must be restored to its previous state within six months with no additional residents or ongoing residential rights.

The parcel of land in Hawarden, at the bottom of Gladstone Way, just off the Queensferry junction of the A494, was originally subject to a planning application in 2021 for the installation of hard standing and a permanent utility room.

Hardstanding

That permission was refused by Flintshire County Council’s Planning Committee – against the advice of officers – but the hardstanding was installed and residential caravans moved onto the site. A retrospective planning application was then lodged last year, again for hard standing for two caravans with a permanent utility room.

It was refused a second time due to the land being outside the settlement area in the Flintshire Local Development Plan and the fact the land was part of the protected Green Wedge.

In September 2024 Flintshire County Council served an enforcement notice for the site, ordering that it be returned to its former state and no longer be used for residential purposes, with the caravans removed from the land.

The applicants, Martin and Mary Gallagher, appealed and PEDW sent an inspector to review the situation.

After a site visit and conversations with all parties he ruled that the site should be permitted to remain.

Identified need

The inspector said: “The council has confirmed that, despite the identified need, there are no available alternative sites within the administrative area.

“The evidence suggests that this situation is also unlikely to change in the short term and the council acknowledged at the hearing that, despite having a criteria based policy in its adopted LDP, it does not have a strategy in place to deal with the gypsies and travellers that are in immediate need of accommodation.

“The council is, therefore, failing to meet its statutory duty under Section 103 of the Housing (Wales) Act.”

‘Itinerant roadside lifestyle’

He added that the appellant, Martin Gallagher, had confirmed that if they were forced to move they would not be able to find another site to settle and would have to take up an ‘itinerant roadside lifestyle’.

“The failure to secure planning permission in this instance would lead to the family being made homeless with only the prospect of a roadside existence,” he said.

“This would represent a significant disruption to the family unit, which would be in complete contrast to the current arrangements where the family could live in a secure environment throughout the year. A roadside or itinerant lifestyle would also have clear and obvious implications for the family’s ability to gain access to essential facilities and services, with potentially catastrophic implications for the overall stability of the family unit.

“The family are well embedded into the local community and have caring responsibilities for an elderly family relative who lives less than half a mile away. A grant of planning permission in this instance would enable those connections to continue and for the family’s work, education and healthcare continuing relatively uninterrupted.”

Mr Gallagher continued: “They would inevitably encounter problems accessing education from no fixed address, with a similar situation likely to arise in respect of healthcare. This would be expected to have a significant adverse impact upon the general well-being of any family members being made homeless,

“I have found that the minor harm to the Green Wedge, even when attributed substantial weight, is clearly outweighed by the matters in favour of the development.

“The enforcement notice should be quashed. Planning permission should be granted, subject to conditions.”

Those conditions include the land being restored once the current residents no longer live there, no more than two caravans occupying the site, no commercial activities or storage to take place on the land and a revised planning application being submitted to Flintshire County Council within three months.