Richard is part of a group of cross-party MPs led by his colleague, Claire Coutinho MP for East Surrey, who have been looking at ways to drill down on this problem and the group recently met with the Housing Minister to discuss the issue, which has caused many problems in North Bedfordshire.
Richard Fuller MP said:
The loophole allowing illegal traveller sites to pop up over a single weekend must be stamped out. Rules are being broken, residents find fields converted overnight into illegal camps and increasingly the law seems to lean more toward protecting those who break the law, rather than the law abiding.
We had four key recommendations to raise with the Minister:
- Set up a cross-party task force: These unauthorised developments cause multiple overlapping issues and councils, and the police are already stretched - there needs to be a ‘big picture’ approach to how we tackle this.
- Strengthen Stop Notices: If someone ignores a Stop Notice from a council and carries on building anyway, should they automatically lose the right to retrospective planning permission?
- Provide clear guidance to councils': Councils are restricted from refusing retrospective planning permission by ambiguous government guidance. Councils need much clearer guidance on how to assess the actual need - so the planning system can’t be manipulated.
- Consider making it illegal to deliver construction materials to sites which do not have planning permission
We had a constructive meeting with the housing minister, Matthew Pennycook to discuss how best to tackle the growing issue of illegal traveller developments and encampments.
The Minister shared our concerns: there was a widespread recognition that the current law simply isn’t working.
The Minister recognised that perpetrators are increasingly using a highly sophisticated approach with professional operations and well-funded lawyers - carrying out construction on land after council offices close on a Friday or over a bank holiday weekend.
The Minister acknowledged that the sheer frequency and scale of these professional operations is new and a problem across the country.
I will be catching up with Claire Coutinho again soon to push this forward.
