Chichester District Council's enforcement notice on mobile home supported by inspector

The notice was issued in April 2022 regarding a home placed on land north west of Newbridge Farm, in Salthill Road.

In a report published on Monday (January 15), planning inspector Paul T Hocking responded to an appeal from Adrian Thomas opposing the notice.

While Mr Hocking dismissed the appeal when it came to the mobile home, other issues were not so clean cut.

The council had also accused Mr Thomas of running a waste collection business from the site and included a requirement in the enforcement notice that he stop doing so.

But Mr Hocking’s report said that Mr Thomas vehemently denied that this was happening – adding that there was ‘very little verified evidence’ to back the council’s allegations.

The report said it would ‘be open to the council to reconsider and investigate the matter afresh’.

Mr Thomas will now have to remove the mobile home and portable toilet from the site as well as a lean-to porch, wooden deck and free-standing kitchen.

Two metal container buildings and portable cabins used to store household items will also have to go, along with a lorry and other vehicles parked on the land.

He will also have to break up and remove an earth bund and fencing and level things out so they follow the natural gradient/slope of the land.

A council spokesman said: “We welcome the decision of the inspector in upholding the enforcement notice against the use of the land, in a rural area, for residential purposes without justification.

“We also note that the inspector has deleted the waste operation from the description of the alleged breach, as stated in the enforcement notice.

“We will consider in due course whether the waste on the land should be the subject of a separate enforcement notice to require it to be removed and to prevent the land from being used for the storage of waste in the future.”