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Planning Permission for Caravan Sites
As has been said, (see Introduction) before the enactment of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994(CJPOA), local authorities had a statutory duty to provide caravan sites for Gypsies and Travellers under the Caravan Sites Act 1968 (CSA). However, the CJPOA 1994 removed that duty and gave local authorities and the police draconian powers to evict Gypsies and Travellers from unauthorised sites.
At the same time that the CJPOA 1994 was passed, the government introduced planning policy which favoured the private provision of sites for Gypsies and Travellers. Circular 1/94 Gypsy Sites and Planning (Circular 1/94-in Wales, Welsh Office Circular 2/94) stated that Gypsies and Travellers should be ‘encouraged’ to purchase land themselves and apply to legitimise their own sites through the planning system.
In theory, requiring Gypsies and Travellers to use the planning system would seem an equitable approach but for this policy to be credible there had to be some real prospect of obtaining planning consent for private sites. The House of Lords cast doubt on the effectiveness of this policy in South Bucks v Porter, Wrexham CBC v Berry, and Chichester DC v Keet and Searle. The judges observed that Gypsies’ and Travellers’ attempts to obtain planning permission almost always met with failure: statistics given to the court found that 90 percent of applications made by Gypsies and Travellers had been refused and that the number of sites that had been authorised had fallen far short of what was needed.
Circular 1/94 suggested that local planning authorities should assess the need for Gypsies’ and Travellers’ caravan sites in their administrative areas and identify locations where the land use requirements of Gypsies and Travellers can be met. If suitable locations could not be found, then local authorities were required to set clear and realistic criteria for establishing caravan sites.
However, very few local authorities complied with the policy in Circular 1/94. Little attempt was made to quantify the needs of Gypsies and Travellers and few, if any, local authorities identified suitable locations for such sites, preferring instead to adopt criteria-based policies which often included unrealistic and unclear requirements that had to be met before planning permission could be granted.
At the same time that the CJPOA 1994 was passed, the government introduced planning policy which favoured the private provision of sites for Gypsies and Travellers. Circular 1/94 Gypsy Sites and Planning (Circular 1/94-in Wales, Welsh Office Circular 2/94) stated that Gypsies and Travellers should be ‘encouraged’ to purchase land themselves and apply to legitimise their own sites through the planning system.
In theory, requiring Gypsies and Travellers to use the planning system would seem an equitable approach but for this policy to be credible there had to be some real prospect of obtaining planning consent for private sites. The House of Lords cast doubt on the effectiveness of this policy in South Bucks v Porter, Wrexham CBC v Berry, and Chichester DC v Keet and Searle. The judges observed that Gypsies’ and Travellers’ attempts to obtain planning permission almost always met with failure: statistics given to the court found that 90 percent of applications made by Gypsies and Travellers had been refused and that the number of sites that had been authorised had fallen far short of what was needed.
Circular 1/94 suggested that local planning authorities should assess the need for Gypsies’ and Travellers’ caravan sites in their administrative areas and identify locations where the land use requirements of Gypsies and Travellers can be met. If suitable locations could not be found, then local authorities were required to set clear and realistic criteria for establishing caravan sites.
However, very few local authorities complied with the policy in Circular 1/94. Little attempt was made to quantify the needs of Gypsies and Travellers and few, if any, local authorities identified suitable locations for such sites, preferring instead to adopt criteria-based policies which often included unrealistic and unclear requirements that had to be met before planning permission could be granted.
