Pickles and Traveller planning appeals

Secretary of State at the Department of Communities and Local Government, the Rt Hon Eric Pickles MP has been recovering planning appeals in the Green Belt by Travellers wholesale and sitting on them. In the two years to July 2013 89 Gypsy appeals were lodged for caravans in the Green Belt and 76 were recovered by Mr Pickles. Over the same period 6 ordinary house appeals were recovered out of 1,162.

Meanwhile, South Oxfordshire District Council leader said this week that 'there will have to be a review of the Green Belt in certain areas'. 15,000 new homes are planned at Ebbsfleet; another 15,000 at Northstowe in Cambridgeshire, and a further 13,000 at Bicester. Inevitably the Green Belt is being 'reviewed' because otherwise there's no hope of meeting the southeast's desperate housing shortage.  

This discrimination was challenged in the High Court on Friday in R (Moore & Coates) v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government on Friday. The judgement will be interesting