What about our human rights?
Locals turn tables on notorious family over bid for gipsy caravan site
TIME and time again the cry of ‘human rights’ has gone up when some travellers have been embroiled in planning disputes with locals.
Now, however, the tables are being turned as villagers whose lives are being ruined by one notorious clan are claiming it is their human rights which are being trampled on.
Residents opposed to plans for a traveller site in the hamlet of Dough Bank in Worcestershire are citing Article Eight of the European Convention of Human Rights as a reason to refuse them.
They claim such a site would impact on their right to a private and family life as it is at odds with their ‘well-maintained houses’ and ‘carefully attended gardens’ – and have called for the case to go before a High Court judge.
Patrick Doran – part of the family which gained worldwide notoriety after a trail of litter, unpaid bills and thefts saw them deported from a holiday to New Zealand earlier this year – has applied for permission to have two caravans and a toilet block on a plot in the village.
But the other 22 residents of Dough Bank say he has made their lives a misery with his anti- social behaviour. They claim he has threatened them, blocked an access lane, turned off their water supply, dumped building waste on the site and built an ‘eyesore’ 10ft wall of breeze blocks.
They also say he has held them to ransom by offering to leave on condition locals bought the land from him for £600,000. He purchased it for just £60,000 in 2014. When the Daily Mail’s Robert Hardman visited Dough Bank in June he was met with physical resistance and threats. ‘You’re not welcome here,’ Mr Doran told him as he blocked a public right of way and called the police. ‘If you don’t leave I will offend (sic) myself.’
Mr Doran was originally granted planning permission for the caravans on appeal in 2016 but the approval lapsed after he failed to meet a number of conditions, including measures to protect trees and habitat for badgers.
He resubmitted the application, and villagers were horrified when council officers recommended it for approval. At a meeting of Wychavon District Council’s planning committee, residents including the chairman of Worcestershire County Council Peter Tomlinson, said it would breach their human rights if the site was allowed to remain.
Mr Tomlinson, the creator of children’s television show Tiswas, told the meeting last week: ‘This applicant… appears to have no respect for planning law, for inspectors’ decisions or even for the High Court and, as you are well aware, little or no respect for the residents of Dough Bank…
‘I believe this applicant is actually in breach of Article Eight of the Human Rights Convention by deliberately not respecting the rights of the settled community.’
He urged councillors to ‘refuse it so it can go to a higher court for judgment’.
Villagers have also accused Mr Doran, who lives on the site with his partner and four children, of playing loud music and tearing up trees and shrubs.
One, Howard Robinson, told the meeting: ‘They have brought as many as four caravans on to the site and subdivided the plot with an illegally-built 10ft-high wall.
‘Dough Bank is a small collection of well-maintained houses each with carefully attended gardens. For these reasons and others we ask that this planning application is rejected.’
The committee agreed to defer a decision to gather more information. Mr Doran, who attended the hearing with his partner, refused to comment other than to say: ‘I am very angry right now.’
Held to ransom by the neighbours from hell From the Mail, June 22