A group of travelling people at the centre of a bitter planning dispute have decided to set down roots with the construction of a permanent residence on an illegal site.
Residents living near the site outside St Cyrus, Aberdeenshire, at the estuary of the River North Esk, were left stunned yesterday morning when a massive residential home was delivered to the site on two 40ft trailers.
The latest addition to the site has left locals bewildered and they are asking Aberdeenshire Council to enforce the removal of the residential home and caravans from the site.
One resident, who did not want to be named, said: “This is just awful – it’s developing in to a situation like the one at Dale Farm.
“We are putting pressure on the authorities to get something done but they’re just not listening.
“If this group get away with what they’re doing it will be an open invitation to everyone else – they might as well put up a sign saying ‘welcome to Aberdeenshire, you can do whatever you want’.”
The site was formerly a field until dozens of travellers arrived late last year and parked their caravans on the site.
Since then they have fenced the area off, tarred roads on the site and built a toilet block, wash-house and pump room.
Representatives of the travellers applied to Aberdeenshire Council for retrospective planning permission for the site.
The application was dramatically withdrawn in April after objections by local residents and concerns from SEPA over the danger of flooding.
The council also applied to the court seeking an interim interdict to force the travellers to halt all building works.
A local resident, who did not wish to be identified, said: “This is the last straw. They came here saying that they simply wanted a place for caravans. Now with the arrival of this residential home they have obviously decided to stay.
“This has grown from a few caravans to a small village being set up. It has upset the whole community. We have been living close to a building site since they arrived it is simply intolerable. They have no legal right to be doing this.”
Edinburgh-based architect and town planning consultants Forbes Rowan-Spencer Marr are handling the planning application on behalf of the group. They were unavailable for comment.
A spokesman for Aberdeenshire Council said: “We are unaware of any work still happening at the site. The case regarding the breach of interdict will call at Aberdeen Sheriff Court on August 19.”