Third caravan bid by Rogues Lane family

TRAVELLERS given permission to stay on an illegal site thanks to the ‘rights of the unborn child’ want to pitch another caravan.

The third mobile home will be used for the extended family of landowner Michael Cash who won an appeal to remain at Rogues Lane in Hinckley largely because his wife was pregnant.

With a five-year sanction from a Government inspector to park two mobile homes on the former pony paddock, the group now want to add another.

Planning committee members at Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council are expected to discuss the application at a forthcoming meeting.

As required by the appeal conditions the family sought permission last year for the creation of two timber day rooms on the site, now labelled Five Acres, north of Cold Comfort Farm.

When it came to committee, councillors determined they were ‘minded to reject’ the bid due to its potential negative impact on the surrounding countryside and the bid was subsequently withdrawn.

In the latest application Mr Cash describes the new development as: “One mobile home, already approved for two mobile homes, making a total of three mobile homes. It will be used by the son, his wife and their two boys.”

Both children nearby schools.

This is a further attempt at settlement of the site which continues a longrunning wrangle between the travellers and the borough council.

The fields with existing stables and electricity was purchased by Mr Cash knowing he had to leave his previous site in March 2015.

As with any development a planning application and approval of building proposals as well as a are at change of use permission from the local authority were required for him to use the site for caravan pitches.

Following the rejections of those applications on visual impact and highways safety grounds, the family turned up on site sparking a series of court hearings, eviction notices and enforcement orders from the borough, countered by appeals and ultimately the intervention of a Government planning inspector.

Last autumn the inspector allowed the travellers to stay for five years. While the official agreed the site was unsustainable and impacted adversely on the rural area he said the rights of the (then) unborn child, lack of alternative locations and failure by the council to show a five year supply of traveller pitches outweighed these considerations.