Owner fights bid to remove mobile homes

The owner of a new Herefordshire mobile home park is fighting demands to remove them.

Shaun Gorman of Madley Caravan Park was served an enforcement notice by Herefordshire Council demanding the 20 mobile homes be emptied within four weeks and cleared from the site, in an industrial area west of Hereford, within six weeks.

The council said planning permission had never been granted for changing the use of the site to a caravan park, and that the change had been made within the last ten years so was “not immune from enforcement action”.

Indeed Google Street View images of the site show no caravans on it in September last year or previously.

“Although it is claimed that some of the residents are gypsy or travellers, no further information has been provided, and the relevant questions on the planning contravention notice on this matter has not been answered,” the council’s enforcement notice said.

The council had previously considered the spot among candidates for travellers’ sites in the county, but rejected it as too near the industrial estate.

It also lies outside any settlement boundary and lacks a mains water connection – these being among the reasons why the council said it would not grant the site planning permission.

The notice was served on August 1 and gave Mr Gorman a month to appeal before the clock started ticking on the requirement to clear the site.

Mr Gorman has now opted to appeal against the enforcement to the government’s Planning Inspectorate.

According to the published notice of the appeal, this is on the grounds that planning permission should be granted for the current use, that the planning breach “has not occurred as a matter of fact”, that the enforcement notice “was not properly served on everyone with an interest in the land”, that requirements made by the notice are “excessive” and the time to comply with them “too short”.

A date for the planning enquiry has yet to be set.