Another illegal Gypsy Traveller site is being constructed in West Berkshire – this time near Pangbourne.
Another illegal Gypsy Traveller site is being built in West Berkshire — this time near Pangbourne. Work began a week before Christmas and West Berkshire Council has issued a stop notice.
The council has also won High Court injunctions against unauthorised developments near AWE Aldermaston (south of Reading Road) and in Hermitage (Winkworth Lane) to halt building, prevent fly-tipping and stop further encampments, but locals fear the measures are not putting people off.
“I live in a small hamlet between Pangbourne and Bradfield which consists of 25 properties,” explained Arian Elsey. “We are in a designated National Landscape (AONB). We have a private drive, 580 metres long, serving our properties.
“To the west of this drive was a field which was designated as agricultural use only.
“The owner of this field divided it into one acre plots and sold them. One of these plots was sold to travellers. On the 15th December, some heavy machinery was moved onto the site and they started to clear it and brought in hardcore to form hardstanding. They erected floodlights, powered by a generator and worked through the night — much to the annoyance of the occupants of the house just across the drive.
“They erected a fence around the site and moved six caravans onto it. The man in charge, in conversation with my neighbours, stated that they were going to have a permanent site and had applied for retrospective planning permission. He seemed very conversant with the law and of actions likely to be taken by the council and also stated that it would take six to seven years to go through all the legal processes.
“This situation appears to be a very regular occurrence across the country.”
A letter signed by 30 MPs warns of a “wave of illegal development”, with land being bought and built on without planning permission. The MPs want a task force to help councils enforce planning rules and new powers over such sites.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government says it expects local authorities to enforce. The non-profit organisation Friends, Families and Travellers has said provision of official spaces for travellers was “virtually non-existent”, while the government has relaxed some planning rules relating to gypsy and traveller sites.
National planning policy requires councils, including West Berkshire, to assess need for Gypsy, Traveller and Travelling Showpeople sites. West Berkshire Council has faced criticism for not providing enough authorised spaces, which critics say fuels unauthorised encampments and legal battles — the Newbury/Pangbourne example is the latest flashpoint.
Local objections commonly cite planning and infrastructure impacts. The controversial £3.5m council-funded redevelopment of the Four Houses Corner site in Ufton Nervet — notorious because of the killing of PC Andrew Harper — remains a particularly sensitive case.
By law, local authorities must consider the human rights of Gypsy and Traveller communities, and these groups are formally recognised under the Race Relations Act 1976 and the Equality Act 2010. Despite that, discrimination persists — 62 per cent of travellers report racial abuse — and many sites raise health concerns, including air pollution, poor sanitation and proximity to industrial hazards.
West Berkshire currently has several pending appeals for traveller pitches, including one east of Blacknest Lane, Brimpton (single pitch) and another for five pitches south of Sandhill, Hermitage. Existing provision is scattered across sites at New Stocks Farm, Paices Hill, Aldermaston, Four Houses Corner, Padworth, Ermin Street, Lambourn Woodlands and Wash Water, Enborne Row.
A crucial legal point: placing a caravan on land without planning permission is not automatically illegal. A breach only happens if stationing the caravan is a material change of use — for example, residential use on agricultural land.
The government plans to relax rules on traveller sites in the Green Belt by reclassifying some land as ‘grey belt’ and updated national policy on traveller sites (effective late 2024/early 2025) to widen the definition and allow “demonstrable unmet need” to justify Green Belt use. The changes aim to make it easier to get permission for legitimate sites while still requiring releases through local plans rather than single applications, with the stated goal of reducing unauthorised developments.
Speaking about the reforms, Abbie Kirkby, head of policy and public affairs at Friends, Families and Travellers said: “We are encouraged to see our collective work campaigning on site provision being addressed during the review of national planning policies. The changes in policies will help reduce some of the long-standing barriers to the delivery of sites for Gypsy and Traveller families.
“However, prejudicial attitudes will continue to be a blocker, and only by reintroducing a statutory duty to provide sites will we see meaningful change for the provision of homes for Gypsy and Traveller communities. As ever, we will continue to work alongside others to campaign for this.”
For now, the clash over land use in West Berkshire looks set to continue, with legal fights, planning changes and local tensions all playing out near Pangbourne.
Niki Hinman, Local Democracy Reporter
