FROM THIS TO THIS: Work started on traveller site on Felsted field as soon as Uttlesford Council closed for Bank Holiday as predicted

RESIDENTS of an Essex hamlet awoke this morning to a traveller site being built without planning permisision outside their homes, as UK News and Investigations predicted.

UK News and Investigations told yesterday, May 1 2026, of fears that the Bank Holiday weekend could be used to transform the field at Willows Green, near Felsted, Essex, into an unlawful caravan site.

No sooner than the offices of Uttlesford District Council closed, an army of workers, vehicles and machinery pulled onto the land.

Using lights and generators, diggers began turning over grass ready for hardcore and asphalt.

About 30 cars, vans and machines were seen on the site, overlooked by a number of homes, as the noise of machinery and voices spilled out.

This morning the work is said to be continuing, with criticism of the district council for not arranging an emergency hotline for residents or taking any preemptive action, such as placing an Article Four Directive, which would prevent fencing going up, or applying for an emergency injunction against any work.

The Felsted Parish hosts the historic private school of the same name which was attended by Oliver Cromwell's four sons after it was founded in 1564 by Richard Rich, the first Baron Rich, who served as Lord Chancellor of England during the reign of King Edward VI from 1547 to 1551.

In more recent years the school has educated several top cricketers, including England internationals Derek Pringle, Nick Knight, John Stephenson, and Jordan Cox, plus England rugby union player Max Malins.

The land was considered a wildlife haven for protected great crested newts where rare albino fallow deer have also been seen.

Willows Green is one of a number of green settlements around the village that saw development from the Bronze Age.

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

Since then, it is believed it has been marketed as about ten smaller plots with fears some have been purchased by members of the travelling community.

Last week a local council source suggested there could be plans afoot to import thousands of tonnes of hardcore to the site to construct the base of a mobile home park, before moving on static caravans.

The source said: "We understand that someone from within the travelling community has been trying to arrange the delivery of thousands of tonnes of hardcore to the site this."

Bank Holiday weekend developments are a modus operandi that has been used by some members of the travelling community at various sites across the country over the past three decades.

Military style operations usually commence once the local district council's offices close on the Friday, before a retrospective planning application, for the work already completed, is handed to the authority when it reopens.

Three councils across the south east were left taking legal action after the Easter bank holiday weekend after different traveller groups set up new unauthorised sites in Surrey, Kent and Hertfordshire.

At one of the locations - a four-acre site at Alfold in Surrey - an interim injunction has been issued following an emergency application from Waverley Borough Council to the High Court after 17 pitches for caravans were created without planning permission.

It ordered the Travellers not to further develop their camp pending another court hearing.

Sevenoaks District Council issued a stop notice to halt work after the illegal construction without planning permission of a traveller site began at a green belt site in Church Road, Sundridge over the Easter weekend.

And, about 16 pitches were developed on an area of outstanding natural beauty at Flamstead, Hertfordshire, without permission over the same weekend causing Dacorum Borough Council to apply for an emergency High Court injunction.

Even if planning applications are refused, it triggers a series of legal appeals during which human rights lawyers argue the council in question is not meeting traveller site provision in the area amid a claim of a drastic national shortage.

Richard Freeman, Chair of Felsted Parish Council's Planning Committee, said on Thursday: 'Members of the parish council did hear the rumours you refer to and this was referred to Uttlesford District Council, as it is the council that could take any action, but we were told there is not really any action they can take until something happens so the law is really against us. Residents will be keeping their eyes and ears open over the weekend and will report anything suspicious to Uttlesford Council immediately.'

The site is registered as being owned by UK Real Estate and Land 2 Limited, which paid £125,000 cash to the previous owner for the land on April 29 2025, with an overage deed arrangement to pay him more if its value were to increase.

The company has been dormant since being set up in May 2023 and was dissolved after a voluntary strike off on April 28 this year.

A planning application was made by one of the new smaller plot owners, not from the traveller community, for a three-bedroom residential log cabin in December.

It was rejected by the council as being inappropriate development in the countryside and due to the likely presence of the newts.

Several neighbouring households objected to the planning application amid concerns over how the land was being sold as smaller plots.

One wrote: 'The agricultural field in question was sold off in a number of small parcels very recently... on a speculative basis. We are very concerned that if this application is approved, then the other owners of the various land parcels will want to follow suit.'

Another said: 'There is a regular free transit of a herd of deer including rare albino deer.

'The question of sale and division of the field into lots were advertised from a London Agency and did not mention that this land had any permission to convert to residential from agricultural.. I am suspicious of (the) intention with this proposal.'

on thursday Uttlesford Council was asked if enforcement officers would be on standby over the weekend with a hotline for residents to call.

A spokesperson said there was an online form to report planning breaches and added: 'We are aware of local concerns regarding the land, however, at this stage no breach of planning control has occurred. The site is not subject to an injunction or Article 4 Direction.

'Planning enforcement is a reactive service – this means the council can only take formal action once a breach has taken place. It cannot act before a breach has occurred.  

'Should unauthorised development occur, we will respond in accordance with our planning enforcement plan.'  

All images in this report copyright UK News and Investigations.