Illegal Gypsy and Traveller site created without permission on Derbyshire field poses “unacceptable risk to public health and safety”

South Derbyshire District Council officers have recommended that retrospective plans from S Rogers for three Gypsy and Traveller pitches and three day rooms on land off Woodville Road, Overseal, are rejected.

Councillors are set to make the final decision at a meeting next week, with opposition being raised by 103 residents, Overseal Parish Council, MP Samantha Niblett, the district’s environmental health officer, Derbyshire County Council’s public rights of way team and the Mining Remediation Authority.

Work on the site, which had been a vacant field opposite existing homes in Woodville Road, started without permission last August.

This saw the owner served with a temporary stop notice from the district council – not a permanent one – prohibiting any further work taking place or face “immediate prosecution”.

Work on the site continued, officials confirm, “despite the service of enforcement notices”, but the council has not detailed any formal legal action.

The council frequently allows retrospective applications for work which requires permission and awaits the conclusion of the planning process before taking potential action.

If plans are approved then there may be no action taken and if plans are rejected, the door is opened to enforcement.

The notice issued last summer said Mr Rogers had submitted his planning application to the authority on August 22 and that work would commence on August 23.

“Extensive deposits” of hardcore for beginning “unauthorised” building work were moved onto the site on August 22, residents and councillors reported, with photos from the time showing it too.

A post and photos taken in early September from Samantha Niblett, South Derbyshire MP, showed further works including a track constructed on the site and extensive fencing for the three pitches and the overall plot boundary.

The district council details that a public right of way cuts through the centre of the site, while the plot is a coal mining development “high risk” area and lies 55 metres from the Hooborough Brook, which is a tributary of the River Mease, a special area of conservation with significant legal protection.

Since last September, two areas of concrete have now also been laid for static caravan pitches and an area for a septic tank has been dug out – beneath legally protected trees.

The Mining Remediation Authority – the new name for the Coal Authority – said it has “substantive concern” about the plans with inadequate assessment of potential risks from mine gases, ground instability, coal seams and shallow mine workings.

Meanwhile, the district council’s environmental health officer says the site has now been the subject of imported waste materials for construction from an unknown origin and without any assessment of contamination, with no analysis of the proposed septic tank plans.

Overseal Parish Council said: “There are many issues with this retrospective proposal, development of which continued despite there being a temporary stop notice in place. It is unfortunate that a permanent stop notice was not obtained, as this would have meant that the application could have been refused consideration.”

They say there are two existing Traveller sites in the village and two more in the wider district.

Opposition from residents includes noise and disruption from the works and potential loss of privacy, concern over dumping of unknown waste, road safety issues, access for emergency vehicles, mining risk, loss of the public footpath, harm to the River Mease from “toxic” materials and drainage concerns.

The council and the applicant refer to the Derbyshire’s Gypsy and Traveller Accommodation Assessment, published in 2023, which showed South Derbyshire having a need for 59 more sites by 2040, on top of the 86 it already had.

Up until 2025, the council says five further sites have been approved, out of the 20 it needed by that point.

District council officers write: “At present the application fails to demonstrate that the development is, or can be made safe, for either the intended occupants’ families, the surrounding residents or users of the public right of way.

“It has been advised that work should cease, due to the outstanding matters and the risk to public health and the health of the occupants of the site until such time as these matters are addressed to the satisfaction of statutory consultees.

“Notwithstanding this development has progressed. Additional infrastructure, apparently drainage and or water infrastructure, has been brought to the site and excavation work has continued for the installation of pipes in areas of the site including but not limited to the root protection areas of two mature trees subject to a tree preservation order.

“Given the development continues to be undertaken on site which is considered to pose a significant risk to public health and safety due to the coal mining legacy of the site and potentially irrevocable damage to the trees adjacent the site Officers consider it is, in this instance, necessary to refuse permission on the basis there is insufficient information.”