OUR VILLAGE WAS RUINED AFTER COUNCIL LET TRAVELLER SET UP ILLEGAL SITE

Furious villagers have accused a council of performing a U-turn over an unlawful traveller pitch after it started legal action before announcing it should be allowed to stay.

The idyllic spot had an orchard until a few years ago and a previous owner applied for permission to build a house there but was turned down.

The land in West Walton, Norfolk, was subsequently sold to traveller Freddie Brazil who kept horses there until he put a mobile home on the land without permission three years ago – which locals say has left their homes ‘worthless’.

The Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk began enforcement action which was due to end up in the High Court after it was ignored.

But council officers have now changed their minds and recommended it should stay as it is under pressure from the government to provide 76 more sites for gypsies and travellers.

Local farmer and Tory councillor Julian Kirk spoke out against the site and the suggestion it should get consent at a planning meeting last month.

‘People have put their properties up for sale recently in this small hamlet. When searches have been completed, potential buyers are pulling out due to this application,’ he said.

‘These properties are now worthless. Residents are experiencing mental health issues, depression, anxiety and potential financial loss.’

He told MailOnline this week: ‘I fully appreciate that gypsies and travellers need places to stay. The issue that I and my constituents have is that we already have enough travellers pitches in our area around West Walton, Walton Highway and Walsoken.

‘Residents are annoyed about it. Why can’t they go elsewhere and other areas take some of them?

‘There is only one pitch on the land at the moment but the concern is that there could end up being far more if the land behind is developed as well.’

None of the villagers wanted to be named when approached by MailOnline because they feared reprisals if they spoke out – although there is nothing to suggest Mr Brazil would do so.

One said: ‘The site here was originally an orchard but got sold a few years ago and then changed hands a couple of times.

‘A previous owner tried to get permission to put a four-bedroom house on the site but that got turned down.

‘Freddie then bought it and at first put some horses on there, before turning it into a pitch. He put in planning consent a couple of years ago but it got turned down.

‘They said they would take enforcement action but he ignored that. Now they have got to find all these pitches in the district and they have changed their minds.

‘But it is crazy that the council said ‘No’ to it and now they seem to be saying ‘Yes’. You have to wonder about the effect on property prices.’

Another resident complained: ‘It is ridiculous. This spot is in the wrong place for a traveller’s site. There should just be a normal house.’

Government demands on providing places for travellers to live mean the local authority is considering four planning applications to create a total of 16 pitches in West Walton – meaning there would be 36 pitches within a two-mile radius if approved.

The retrospective application on the land owned by Mr Brazil is for a single residential static caravan, one touring caravan and ‘ancillary works’.

West Walton Parish Council objected to consent being granted for the site, arguing the land had poor drainage, is in a flood risk zone and local schools were already oversubscribed.

A local resident wrote anonymously to the council claiming that the site was ‘totally unacceptable’ from an environmental point of view and ‘inappropriate’.

Another pointed out their application to build three dwellings on a piece of their land was ‘flatly refused’ several years ago.

Their letter went on to say the area had already experienced an ‘enormous reduction in property valuations’.

It claimed: ‘We already know that several of our neighbours cannot sell their properties due to the current planning applications and local already established gypsy sites….

‘I am already subject to littering and gypsies racing their horses outside our homes, closing lanes off so they can race at breakneck speeds with no regard for public safety.’

Borough councillors voted to defer a decision on whether to grant planning consent until the council conducts a strategic review of traveller’s pitches in its local plan, leaving local residents in limbo for the time being – although they suspect approval will ultimately be a formality.

Some are suggesting the council places new sites elsewhere in the borough, such as in the upmarket village of Burnham Market, known as Chelsea-on-Sea, or near the King’s estate at Sandringham.

One fumed: ‘Why don’t they put a load of traveller pitches at Sandringham and see how Charlie boy likes it? We have got enough of them around here already.’

A planning agent acting for Mr Brazil described the land as his ‘home’ and stated that additional traveller pitches were needed in the area.

The agent claimed in documents that the council had undercounted the traveller population in the area and had previously failed to meet ‘accommodation needs of gypsy/travellers’.

Mr Brazil also hit back at critics in a letter to the council, saying gypsies and travellers had a right to own property and participate fully in society.

He insisted that incidents of fly tipping in the area were nothing to do with him.

The borough council was approached for a comment.

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2025-02-08T13:42:08Z