Travellers start work turning wildlife haven into caravan site within hours of council closing its doors for three-day Bank Holiday weekend

Travelers began turning the wildlife haven into a caravan site just hours after the Daily Mail revealed the area was at risk from illegal development.

An army of workers descended on the four-acre site near Felsted in Essex just hours after the local district council closed its doors for the bank holiday weekend on Friday.

Residents warned Uttlesford District Council of the looming threat to the area, which is said to be home to protected great crested newts and where rare albino fallow deer have been spotted, but management said it was powerless to take action.

Yesterday the Daily Mail told how villages across the country were at risk of developing illegal traveler sites after a number of unauthorized caravan sites were set up over the Easter weekend.

We specifically warned how the site in the historic village of Willows Green, just outside Felsted, was at risk after a local council source warned of intelligence that travelers were planning to import thousands of tonnes of hardcore to develop a course this bank holiday weekend.

Residents’ fears were realized last night when, under the cover of darkness, around 30 vehicles, including cars, vans and several diggers, were brought to the site to begin breaking down the vegetation and preparing it for a solid, asphalt foundation.

Using floodlights and generators, several men worked through the night to build in the untouched countryside.

Residents in the picturesque hamlet whose homes face one side of the site saw work begin and awoke to see it continuing.

Protected habitat of great crested newts has been razed to make way for a new caravan site

A man in his 60s said: ‘The council was warned it was possible but sat back and waited for it to happen.

‘The field was full of vehicles, noise and lights all night long. ‘There is no doubt that when the municipality reopens on Tuesday there will be a fully-fledged caravan park opposite our houses.’

Ahead of the weekend, there was criticism that the district council had taken no preventative action, such as imposing a regulation known as the Article Four Directive, which bans any generally permitted construction, such as fencing, on the site after hearing about plans to concrete the site.

Others said they might seek to obtain an emergency injunction banning any development, so if work were started it would be a criminal offence.

That’s what Basildon Council did in 2006 when it obtained a High Court injunction for land on Kennel Lane, near Billericay, before any development could begin after receiving information that the land had been purchased by travelers from Dale Farm.

The green belt area has never been subject to unauthorized construction after the injunction decision was taken.

But when the Daily Mail asked Uttlesford Council on Thursday whether there were any such plans or whether enforcement officers would be on hand with an emergency line for residents to call if they saw any suspicious activity, a spokesman simply urged residents to use the normal online reporting system and said the authority would not be able to take action until any developments began.

One resident said they were unaware of anything that was about to happen and neither the borough nor the parish council warned them or asked them to be wary of suspicious activity.

He said: ‘We first found out about this when they appeared last night. They built a new access road by removing an old fence and filling the ditch with rubble.

‘This morning the road was blocked by six trucks carrying rubble and pallets. There are bulldozers and diggers on site, it’s a huge operation.

‘This is very scary and we don’t know what to do, it’s been a complete shock and we need to hear news of action from Uttlesford Council.’

A person helping the traveler community to obtain retrospective planning permission said the latest wave of development was partly due to some travelers renting out some or all of their sites to migrants and the homeless; This is a phenomenon recently reported by the Daily Mail.

He said: ‘There isn’t enough housing for anyone anymore, so some travelers rent their land to non-travelers and then move out and build new areas. ‘This cycle will continue to repeat as there is a housing crisis across the country.’

A spokesman for Uttlesford Council said on Thursday: ‘We are aware of local concerns about the land, but no breaches of planning control have occurred at this stage. The Site is not subject to any safeguards or Article 4 Directives.

Villagers vent their anger after Uttlesford District Council failed to impose preventive emergency legal action

‘The implementation of planning is a reactive service; This means the council can only take formal action if a breach occurs. It cannot take action before a violation occurs.

‘Should unauthorized development occur we will respond in accordance with our planning implementation plan.’

After the work started, the council was contacted again to get an opinion.

The Felsted area is steeped in history and has a top private school once attended by Oliver Cromwell’s sons.

Felsted School was founded in 1564 by Richard Rich, the first Baron Rich, who served as Lord Chancellor of England from 1547 to 1551 during the reign of King Edward VI.

Oliver Cromwell’s four sons also attended the school, and in recent years the school has trained many top cricketers, including England internationals Derek Pringle, Nick Knight, John Stephenson and Jordan Cox, as well as England rugby union player Max Malins.

The illegally developed area is located in the historic hamlet of Willows Green, one of many green settlements around Felsted that have flourished since the Bronze Age.

It was sold by a farmer to a property company a year ago for £125,000.

It is believed to have since been marketed as around ten smaller plots amid fears some were bought by traveling community members.

Bank Holiday weekend developments are a method used by some members of the traveling community in various parts of the country over the last three decades.

Military-style operations like the one seen last night usually begin after the local district council’s offices close on Friday, before a retrospective planning application for work that has already been completed is submitted to the authority when it reopens.

Three councils in the south-east were forced to take legal action after separate groups of travelers set up new trespassing sites in Surrey, Kent and Hertfordshire after the Easter bank holiday weekend.

The injunction was issued following an urgent application to the High Court by Waverley Borough Council after 17 sites for caravans were created at one of the sites – a four-acre site in Alfold in Surrey – without planning permission.

He ordered the travelers not to develop their camps further until another court hearing.

Sevenoaks District Council has issued a stop work warning after illegal construction began without planning permission on a mobile site in the green belt area of ​​Church Road in Sundridge over the Easter weekend.

Frustrated residents watched thirty vehicles descend on the site despite multiple advance warnings from the council

And the same weekend some 16 sites were developed in an area of ​​outstanding natural beauty in Flamstead, Hertfordshire, prompting Dacorum Borough Council to apply for an urgent High Court order.

Even if the planning applications are rejected, this triggers a series of legal challenges in which human rights lawyers claim the council has failed to meet traveler space requirements in the area due to an alleged severe national shortage.

Richard Freeman, chairman of Felsted Parish Council’s Planning Committee, said before the illegal work began on Thursday: ‘District councilors heard rumors and this was put to Uttlesford District Council because the council could take any action, but we were told there was no action they could take until something happened, so the law is really against us.’

The site is registered as owned by UK Real Estate and Land 2 Limited, which paid £125,000 in cash to the previous owner of the land on 29 April 2025 and issued a surplus deed to pay him further if its value increased.

The company has been dormant since its founding in May 2023 and was dissolved following a voluntary strike on April 28 this year.

In December, a planning application for a three-bedroom log cabin was submitted by one of the new small plot owners, but this was rejected by the council as an inappropriate development in the countryside and the possible presence of newts.

Several neighboring households objected to the development application due to concerns that the land would be sold in smaller parcels.

One wrote: ‘The farmland in question was very recently sold speculatively in several small parcels. ‘If this application is approved we are very concerned that other owners of the various land parcels will want to follow suit.’

Another said: ‘A herd of deer, including rare albino deer, regularly make free passage.

‘The issue of selling the land and dividing it into parcels was announced by a London Agency, and it was not mentioned that this land had permission to be converted from agriculture to residential area. ‘I doubt the intention of this offer.’