Planning bid over ‘unlawful’ travellers encampment near park

Darwen: So, there’s been a bit of a stir over a travellers’ encampment near Whitehall Park. A planning application has popped up for the land where caravans have set up camp.

This all started when some caravans rolled onto private land off Bolton Road. The local council quickly issued a stop notice to halt any groundwork for more caravans. They were trying to prevent a permanent setup of 18 caravans, with six of them being permanent.

Then, Blackburn with Darwen Council got involved, sending out an enforcement notice because the landowners didn’t have the right planning permission. But the landowner appealed to the government, which put a pause on any action to clear the site.

Local residents are pretty upset about this. They showed up at a council meeting, voicing their frustrations and feeling like the council wasn’t doing enough to handle the situation.

Now, the landowner, Thomas Young, has submitted a retrospective planning application. He wants to change the land from agricultural use to a gypsy caravan site with six plots. Each plot would have one static caravan and two mobile ones.

He’s also asking for a new utility block and some hard-standing areas. The local Conservative councillors are not happy about this and plan to oppose the application.

The application says the land is over eight hectares, but they’re only looking to use about 8,000 square meters. It used to be farmed, but it’s not clear what kind of farming was done.

It’s conveniently close to bus services and shops, which the application points out. They’re planning to plant hedges for privacy and biodiversity, plus some bat and bird boxes.

But the local councillors are standing firm against it, saying there’s no need for this on green belt land. They worry it could expand later on.

The council has confirmed that the application is in the works and that there’s a 21-day consultation period. They’re keeping residents in the loop about the encampment and have been checking on the site regularly.