Basildon Council has lost a legal battle to move gipsy caravans from green belt land.

One of the country's senior judges backed a decision by the Environment Secretary to allow three caravans to remain on the land at Little Meadow, The Lily and The Paddocks, all at Grange Road, Basildon, against a planning inspector's recommendations.

Mr Justice Ouseley said at London's High Court that the Secretary of State was right to take into account personal factors, including the importance of providing stable education to the travellers' children.

The council's challenge followed successful appeals by three individuals against its refusal to allow planning permission for mobile homes to be sited on the land.

The planning inspector who heard those appeals held there were no special circumstances justifying development that harmed the openness of the green belt. But the Secretary of State for the Environment went against his inspector's recommendations and allowed the appeals.

He said he considered his inspector had given insufficient weight to the personal circumstances of the applicants, all gipsies, and in particular the importance of not disrupting the schooling of five children.

Barrister Michael Bedford argued on behalf of the council that the Secretary of State was wrong to take these personal circumstances into consideration. He said the decision to give them more weight than the harm to the green belt was "unreasonable".

He said that the inspector identified the significant need for gipsy sites in the area to provide a settled base for the families and enable regular school attendance.

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