14 years on - site has still not been cleared

A ONE acre site that should have been cleared 14 years ago is the latest enforcement battle being waged by Fenland planners.

Enforcement chiefs now plan to take action against the owner of land at The Triangle, Whittlesey Road, March, after claiming the site should have been cleared by May 17, 1993.

A full report has been prepared for next week's Fenland District Council Planning Committee which says no attempt has ever been made to clear the land.

Steve Robshaw, enforcement officer, says the owner wrongly claims he can stay living there on the basis that he was in residence more than four years prior to enforcement proceedings beginning in 1992.

Mr Robshaw says a planning application was received in March of this year but was returned as invalid and no response has since been forthcoming.

"Following a lengthy period of residence in a bungalow on a totally separate site, the owner has now returned to live in one or more structures on the 'Triangle Land' without any form of planning permission," says Mr Robshaw.

And despite being told of the council's position he has "advised us that he intends to live there whatever."

Mr Robshaw says the land is outside the development area boundary and no permission is likely to be given for domestic purposes.

The Planning Inspectorate heard an appeal in 1993, and it was they who set the last date for the site to be cleared.