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Welcome to the village of Sundridge in Kent
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This is often referred to as stockbroker country. It is affluent, it's beautiful
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but recently there's been a bit of a disturbance in the peace here. Over a bank holiday weekend earlier this year
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a traveller family moved in on land that they owned but didn't have planning permission to build on
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It's upset some of the locals. Over a bank holiday weekend, people can quite literally just bulldoze a piece of countryside
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take it over and move in. And it's one example of something that is happening more and more, not just in this part of the world, but around the country too
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of families moving in on land that they may or may not own and applying for planning permission after they've built on it
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I'd love a house in the middle of Sundridge on the Greenbelt, right? I can't have one
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We've come to meet John Evans, a local farmer in the area who lives close to where the traveller site has appeared
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I got a WhatsApp from somebody who said there's a huge mobile home trying to be moved into New Road, which is down there
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11 or 12 lorries turned up. There were mini-diggers. There were about 8 or 10 workers
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They were clearing the site, and the lorries backed in there and tipped the hardcore
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It sounds sort of military operation, really. I mean, it's quick, effective
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Very very well organised I have to say The bloke who been doing the building on this land is Miles Martin Connors He bought the land in question at an auction last year for This he says is land he wants to use to live a quiet life
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So the issue here is not that this is land that isn't his, it's his
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The issue is he needed to have applied for the planning permission
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to put the mobile home on there to build over it. He needed to have done that before he did it
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which is my point in the fact that everybody else, there is a law for everybody else
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whereby you go through the due planning process. I am cross with the process whereby people can quite literally
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just bulldoze a piece of countryside, take it over and move in
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The local MP Laura Chott, who's been very vocal about the impact that traveller sites have had in the community, joined us in the village
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We've had a terrible situation whereby we've had a number of incursions
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generally over the weekend or bank holiday weekends, where travellers who purchase land then set up the sites
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generally on a Friday when they know that the district council is not going to be around, and then they apply for retrospective planning permission
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And it's been incredibly stressful for the local communities involved. It's also just really irritating because this is not how everyone else has to behave
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when they get planning permission. it's caused a lot of upset and I want the law to change
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Obviously we in Sundridge where this has happened once already but you saying that this is happening quite a lot around Sevenoaks around Kent and actually around the country Yes so we got three sites within my constituency where this has happened once already but you saying that this is happening quite a lot around Seven Oaks around Kendi and actually around the country Yes so we got three sites within my constituency where this has happened recently and I in contact with a number of other MPs who had this happen to them
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actually on a bigger scale than we've had even here. And it's just outrageous, it just is so outrageous because it just upsets everybody and it's just not fair
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But it's outrageous that these travelling communities don't have the sites available for them to live on, they would say
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No, I disagree. And also, everybody wants a house, right? Like, I'd love a house in the middle of Sundridge on the Greenbelt, right
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I can't have one. These are things that, if you're a nurse right now
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and you're thinking, sorry, why do they get to illegally just go into a field and build a house when I couldn't do that
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How is that fair? So having spoken to John and spoken to the local MP, Laura Trott
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We're going to go and see Mr Connors, or at least where he's put himself and his family for the time being
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just to find out what his side of the story is and whether it's true to say that what he wants is a quiet life
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in Sundridge countryside, in a lovely part of Kent, or whether there's more coming
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Here we go off to the site where Mr Connors has built his home
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on land that he does own but didn't have planning permission to build on
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He's been served a notice to clear it out by the end of August and basically return it to how it was
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So plant some trees and plant some wildflowers or whatever. And we going to go and see if he wants to tell us what been going on There somebody there
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Hello. Oh, there's a pony. Oh. Yeah, we just wanted to ask about, we just wanted to ask about whether or not you were going to..
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We're just asking whether or not you're going to want to build more. and that I think is our cue to leave
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They say they're calling the police. You saw how well developed that site was actually
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There was a driveway down, there was a gate there. The house looked pretty well set up in a beautiful part of the country
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I mean houses around there are very, very expensive so that is a nice part of the world to be able to live in
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Driving away from the village we managed to get hold of Mr Connors on the phone. Hello sir, sorry to bother you
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He told us that he remains at the site because he needs somewhere to live. But when we asked whether this was why he bought the land
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and built on it without planning permission, our phone call was cut short
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Well, it's a shame we couldn't speak to him in person. It's a shame we didn't get longer on the phone with him
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The phone line seemed to go for whatever reason. It's land that he owns
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They bought it. They need the planning permission to build on it. That's obviously being sought retrospectively, which is the issue
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But as you heard him say there, he needs somewhere to live
