A long-standing family Gypsy and Traveller site on former green belt land has gained official approval.

The Gypsy and Traveller site, occupied by the site's owners and their relatives on plots 2-5 of Hogbar Farm in Lower Bedfords Road, was approved by Havering Council on December 19.

This relates to Hogbar Farm, plot 2, Hogbar Farm East, plot 3, Fairhill Rise, plot 4, and Vinegar Hill, plot 5.

That area of land has been occupied by members of the Gypsy and Traveller community for the past 21 years, according to a design and access statement from applicant Keith Smith Design Consultant.

The council approved the application, P0544.22, for a change of use to demolish an old utility block and install static mobile homes.

"The site shall not be occupied by any persons other than Gypsies and Travellers, defined as persons of nomadic habit of life whatever their race or origin," the council stated under its conditions for approval.

The caravan park will contain 52 individual pitches and the same number of static mobile homes.

This follows the demolition of a worn-out dayroom, according to the design and access statement.

It would not disrupt the green belt, it continued, since the area is now brownfield.

"Lower Bedfords Road has recently been removed from green belt land," it was stated in the document.

The application was received and validated by the council on April 4, 2023.

The site, east of Bedfords Country Park, had been classed as an "unauthorised Gypsy and Traveller site" before the latest planning application was accepted.

Previous applications were submitted, the supporting statement continued, and some were refused due to it previously being in the green belt.

But the applicant successfully argued the Gypsy and Traveller community needs the site for its location to access key services.

"The site has grown into a small community that [has] benefitted from being able to access [the] NHS and education services," the supporting statement read.

The objective of the application is to get full planning permission to allow the owners to remain there and provide safe and secure homes to pursue their Gypsy ethnic way of life, it continued.

The plots are currently in use as a Gypsy and Traveller site so this was a retrospective planning application seeking official council approval.

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