A group of travellers have won a long-running planning row after pitching up on a picturesque rural site.
North Norfolk District Council has given the green light to Tom Harber’s bid to remain on Malthouse Lane, close to the quaint village of Catfield.
Mr Harber has lived on the site with his wife and three children for four years, ever since moving from Essex back in 2022.
The council’s turnaround will follow a series of dismissals and refusals from the authority, defying furious residents’ concerns.
The approved plans will have an extensive impact on the land, which will include a mobile home, touring caravan and a portacabin.
They also detail hardstanding, fencing, vehicle access and even a package treatment plant.
Back in September 2025, an appeal was dismissed following two previous refusals.
The local parish council has fought against the move over concerns the new development would damage the natural landscape.
Opponents have also expressed concerns over the proximity to a FloGas depot, and cast doubt on whether the latest planning permission was really different to past requests.
But council officers insisted that the reason they previously denied the planning was down to issues that have now been amended.
They said the issues have now been fixed thanks to revisiting arrangements on drainage and nutrient credits to reduce impacts on local wildlife sites.
The officers, however, conceded the proposal is “harmful to the landscape”.
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The report also admits that the travellers’ unauthorised occupation on the site should provide a “moderate” reason against development.
Local policy also demands electric vehicle charging, with which the site would not comply.
But the authority’s officers said that, due to the lack of authorised sites for travellers in the area, any issues were outweighed by contradictory arguments.
The planning officers said that refusal of the planning permission would “force” the family’s departure and may risk upsetting the children’s education.
As a result, they handed over “significant weight” to the individual personal circumstances to the applicant’s family.
“Gypsies and travellers are part of North Norfolk life and always have been,” the council said.
“The Council believes that in order to promote good community relations and to meet recent government guidance, it should provide sites or stopping places for gypsies and travellers in the district.”
They have already set out two short-stay stopping sites for gypsies and travellers, bankrolled by the Government’s gypsy and traveller site grant fund.
GB News has approached North Norfolk District Council for comment.
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