Ernie Clark. Hilperton Division, Wiltshire Council.

A reply has been received from WWDC.
This is the reply I received, which seems to indicate that no action can be taken by the WWDC enforcement team.

"Dear Cllr Clark,

Thanks for the e mail.

The excavation is for a shallow trench to carry a water pipe from the animal troughs on the west side of this field to the edge of the area where the caravans are stationed. A hosepipe with a tap attached acts as a sort of standpipe.

I have been in discussions with the lawyers about where we stand with this and it seems that there is probably nothing we can do to prevent this work. There are three reasons:-

1 Even although the occupants of the site are there without planning permission we can not unreasonably prevent works which provide for the basic health, safety and welfare of those on the site. A supply of clean water for drinking and washing etc clearly falls into this category. The stop notice includes a provision which did not prevent works in the interests of the health, safety and welfare of the occupants subject to those works being agreed with the council.

2 Human rights legislation.

3 The provision of water supply to land is permitted development and therefore does not require a specific planning permission.

We have also received a request on behalf of the occupants of the site for connection to an electricity supply. The above three points apply to this also. This request has been passed to us in writing by Wiltshire CC Social Services and the Bath and North East Somerset NHS Primary Care Trust because a child on site has a serious medical condition and requires feeding by gastrostomy tube. This process is best managed by a pump which requires a reliable electricity supply (i.e. a generator is not considered sufficiently reliable). In these circumstances there is little we can do to resist this request.

In the case of both the water and power supplies action to remove or hide pipe work and power lines would not be difficult in the event of planning permission being refused and enforcement action taken requiring the reinstatement of the site to its former condition.

The purpose of the stop notice was to contain the number of caravans on the site to what was there when the notice was served and to prevent further works which required planning permission while a planning application for the proposed development was determined. In particular we wanted to contain works which would be difficult to reverse in the future - e.g. the removal of more hardstanding.

The planning application is now with us and complete. A site notice will be posted this week and an advertisement will be put in the Wiltshire Times on 28th December. The period for responses will run until 18th January. The parish council will receive its consultation this week."