TRAVELLERS say they are disgusted by their treatment at the hands of Basildon Council – and vowed to fight to stay at the Wickford site where they have lived for ten years.

A planning inspector will decide whether seven caravan pitches in Cranfield Park Avenue can remain, after the council failed to rule on their application in time.

It has prompted a Labour councillor to accuse the Tory-run council of ineptitude.

By law, councils are required to deal with planning applications within 13 weeks of submission.

Council planning officers claim they delayed bringing the application before councillors because they were waiting for a new traveller sites policy to be finalised.

The council has been told by the Government it must find room for another 257 pitches over the next 20 years, but has yet to decide where.

Adele Brown, Labour councillor for Fryerns ward, said: “I find it abhorrent these gentlemen and their families find themselves in this situation.

“This council has not met the needs of its residents. Because of that inept position, it is likely if any pitches come up in future we would lose on appeal because we have not met our requirements.

“What do we gain by just ignoring this application in the hope a local plan will appear?”

The site has a long history of planning disputes. The council first took enforcement action against families living there in 2005. In 2009, they were given temporary, five-year permission, on the assumption land would be allocated after that for legal pitches.

That permission expired last June and the travellers then applied to renew it on a permanent basis last October.

The site is in the green belt, but council planning officer Neil Costen recommended councillors to allow permanent occupation, arguing the borough was “nowhere near” meeting its obligation to identify pitches.

The planning committee refused accept this, deciding instead to give the travellers a further five years.

However by this time, the application had run out of time, prompting the appeal to the Planning Inspectorate.

After the meeting, Frank Tidd, a site resident for ten years, confirmed the travellers would appeal.

He said: “We are absolutely disgusted with what has happened.

“We have had our own land for ten years and only three years of that illegally.

“The appeal is absolutely going through.”

Angry exchanges at planning meeting

COUNCILLORS who opposed letting the families stay on the site accused travellers of flouting planning law.

The meeting was told the council had made no attempt to remove the travellers, since their temporary planning permission expired last June.

Planning officer Neil Costen told councillors the Cranfield Park Avenue site was not considered a priority when resources were needed elsewhere.

Tory councillor Andrew Schrader said: “It seems to me that whatever we decide to do, it is going to go on anyway in complete contravention of planning rules.

“They are going to carry on regardless and we are not going to enforce any refusal.

“We have failed to take any action to address the issue.”

The Government initially told Basildon it had to provide 121 traveller pitches, then more than doubled this to 257 to accommodate families evicted from the giant Dale Farm site.

Planning committee member Kerry Smith, councillor for Nethermayne, voted against the granting of five-year permission for Cranfield Park Avenue, arguing the move would set a dangerous precedent.

Mr Smith explained: “It is green belt land and they should not be there. What is to stop any Basildon resident buying land for their dream house with no permission?

“Basildon has a large number of pitches and we have done our bit. Without a doubt, the committee should have said no, but what it said instead was maybe, and that is very different.”