Travellers Submit Application To Make Ockham Site Permanent

Published on: 9 Dec, 2025
Updated on: 9 Dec, 2025

Aerial view of the proposed permanent traveller site. Guildford Borough Council documents

By Emily Dalton

local democracy reporter

Travellers who moved onto a former farming field in a Surrey village have now put forward a formal application to stay permanently.

The proposal seeks part-retrospective planning permission to turn land off Alms Heath and School Lane in Ockham into a permanent traveller site with six pitches for families.

The scheme includes 12 new car parking spaces, hardstanding for caravans and touring vehicles, and boundary planting to screen the site.

Map showing location of the proposed permanent traveller site. Apple maps

Travellers moved onto the land at the end of October, causing much angst from the locals in Ockham, according to national media reports. The site, nearly the size of a football pitch, sits within the green belt, is in a conservation area and close to a listed building.

Residents have come out strongly against the plans, arguing the site should never have been developed in the first place. They urged the council to refuse the plans and take enforcement action to restore the land.

One resident said: “The field in question is in a conservation area and within the green belt. There should not be an automatic right to apply for any sort of planning in these cases and particularly not for caravans or other non tax paying residencies.”

The applicant argues there is a severe shortage of authorised Traveller pitches in the Guildford area and that no suitable alternative sites are available.

Reports state the scheme will not harm the openness of the green belt and that the high level of unmet local need counts as “very special circumstances”.

Planning documents state the site is close enough to schools, doctors and shops to support the families, as well as being designed to avoid conflict with nearby housing. The plans include new hedging and tree planting to keep the land visually contained.

The application also refers to human rights and equality duties, arguing that Gypsies and Travellers are a protected ethnic group and that the best interests of children should carry particular weight in the decision.

One resident commented on the scheme: “I do not support this application… to move in and then apply for change of use and then planning flies in the face of what everyone else has to adhere to.”

But retrospective planning applications are allowed under national planning rules and must be considered by councils in the same way as standard applications, even if work has already taken place. This also applies to Traveller sites.

A long-term resident warned of the wider impact: “I object to this proposal as this would result in a serious over-allowance of these sites in the surrounding area which have had the same – build first/destroy the land and then apply for change of use after.”

In a longer objection, another resident said: “The integrity of the planning system depends on ensuring that unauthorised development is not rewarded. Residents need to see that planning rules apply to everyone.”

Residents can comment on the application on the council’s website until January 2. A decision is due from the council by January 28.