Communities are on alert for a fresh wave of ‘land grabs’ by travellers using the bank holiday weekend as cover build illegal camps.
The trend sees groups buy up fields before rapidly converting them into unauthorised caravan pitches when few officials are around to stop them.
‘Retrospective’ planning applications are then submitted to councils. Even if these fail, legal proceedings to clear the sites are long and costly – allowing travellers to live on them, or rent out caravans to tenants, for months or even years.
Over the Easter weekend, unauthorised developments sprung up in Kent, Surrey and Hertfordshire – and there are fears more could follow as officials head home for this evening.
‘Far too often, people wake up after the bank holiday weekend to find illegal traveller encampments in their communities,’ shadow communities secretary James Cleverly told the Daily Mail today.
‘There is a real problem of travellers trespassing on other people’s land, as well as unlawfully laying down pitches.
‘Families are understandably alarmed, and feel abandoned as criminality goes unpunished and green spaces are occupied and damaged. Eviction becomes mired in legal challenges and even when they are moved on, travellers often come back.’
A field near the village of Felsted in Essex that locals fear could be targeted by travellers
The village (pictured) is best known as the home of Felsted School, which was founded in 1564 by Richard Rich
The Conservatives have vowed to tackle the issue by banning retrospective planning approval for caravan sites and strengthening countryside protections, alongside a range of other measures.
They also believe that leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and repealing the Human Rights Act would prevent wrongdoers from mounting fatuous appeals using human rights laws.
‘Only the Conservatives have a plan to give strong powers to the police and councils to crack down on lawbreaking travellers, ensuring all communities play by the same rules,’ Mr Cleverly added.
The residents of Felsted in north Essex are on red alert today amid fears a nearby field could be next in line for an unauthorised site.
The village is best known as the home of Felsted School, which was founded in 1564 by Richard Rich, who served as Lord Chancellor of England during the reign of King Edward VI from 1547 to 1551.
Yet locals now fear for the fate of a four-acre field in the nearby hamlet of Willows Green.
The field was sold by a farmer to a real estate company for £125,000 a year ago and has since been marketed as a series of small plots, some of which are believed to have been purchased by travellers.
A local council source suggested there are plans afoot to import thousands of tonnes of hardcore to the site to construct the base of a mobile home park, before moving in static caravans.
Diggers and bulldozers descended on a field near Flamstead in Hertfordshire over the Easter weekend
A lorry carrying a static home onto another site in Sundridge, Kent got stuck over the Easter weekend
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The source said: ‘We understand that someone from within the travelling community has been trying to arrange the delivery of thousands of tonnes of hardcore to the site this weekend.’
Three councils across the south east are now taking expensive legal action over unauthorised sites that cropped up over Easter.
At Alfold in Surrey, an interim injunction has been issued following an emergency application from Waverley Borough Council to the High Court after 17 pitches for caravans were created without planning permission.
The site’s owners have been ordered not to carry out any further development before a pending court hearing.
Sevenoaks District Council issued a stop notice to halt unauthorised work at a green belt site in Church Road, Sundridge.
And in Flamstead, Hertfordshire, 16 pitches were developed on an area of outstanding natural beauty, prompting Dacorum Borough Council to apply for an emergency High Court injunction.
Even if planning applications are refused, it triggers a series of legal appeals during which human rights lawyers argue the council in question is not providing enough traveller pitches.
The site at Felsted is registered as being owned by UK Real Estate and Land 2 Limited, which paid £125,000 cash to the previous owner for the land on April 29 2025, with an overage deed arrangement to pay him more if its value goes on to increase.
The company has been dormant since being set up in May 2023 and was dissolved after a voluntary strike off on April 28 this year.
A planning application was made by one of the new smaller plot owners for a three-bedroom residential log cabin in December, but it was rejected by the council as being inappropriate due to the likely presence of the newts.
Several neighbouring households objected to the planning application amid concerns about the land being sold as smaller plots.
Richard Freeman, Chair of Felsted Parish Council’s Planning Committee, said of fears travellers are set to soon move in: ‘Members of the parish council did hear the rumours and referred them to Uttlesford District Council.
‘We were told there is not really any action they can take until something happens so the law is really against us. Residents will be keeping their eyes and ears open over the weekend and will report anything suspicious to Uttlesford Council immediately.’
