Heavy machinery and diggers have bulldozed a greenbelt wildlife haven in Sawbridgeworth, East Hertfordshire, for a suspected traveller site during the Bank Holiday weekend.
Developers arrived on Friday morning with huge lorries, erecting fences and blocking local roads at the site beside the village lock in Sheering Mill Lane.
Videos posted on social media captured birds chirping while heavy machinery churned up the greenbelt land, leaving local residents devastated over the destruction of the wetland habitat and floodplain. Greenbelt status is a statutory planning designation that protects countryside around urban areas from development.
East Herts Council issued a Temporary Stop Notice on Saturday morning requiring all unauthorised activity on the site to cease immediately. Under UK planning law, a Temporary Stop Notice allows local authorities to halt unauthorised development for up to 56 days.
Despite the legal order, neighbours report that unauthorised work has carried on regardless, with diggers, machinery, and vehicles continuing to operate as further materials and large quantities of hardcore are brought onto the land.
Unauthorised Work Continues at Sheering Mill Lane
Sawbridgeworth Mayor Cllr Angus Parsad-Wyatt confirmed that East Herts Council issued the temporary stop notice on Saturday morning. He stated that because the notice was ignored, the council is working on an emergency application for an injunction to prevent occupation of the site, with legal and enforcement officers gathering information in hopes of securing a temporary injunction the same day.
A spokesman for Hertfordshire Constabulary told the Indie that police are aware of the land dispute in Sheering Mill Lane, Sawbridgeworth, and are liaising with partners at East Herts District Council. Both East Herts Council and Hertfordshire Constabulary Police have been contacted by the Daily Mail.
Neighbours noted that while police attended the scene, only two officers were present to deal with the situation while heavy machinery actively destroyed the wildlife habitat in real time.
Residents Appalled by Habitat Destruction
One neighbour in her 50s, who has lived in the area all her life and wished to remain anonymous, told the Daily Mail she feels "powerless" and "devastated" after watching the site destroyed. Just last month, a wild muntjac deer had been pictured enjoying the undisturbed land.
The resident expressed deep sadness over the ruined habitats of protected wildlife, including bats, newts, and nesting birds. "I believe they are travellers building a traveller site. Some people don't want them anywhere and I think they should go through all the steps that everyone else has to when it comes to planning and building," she said.
She added: "They definitely don't have permission - the order was ignored and they've continued to bring in diggers and all sorts of machines."
Describing the rapid destruction, she said: "The reserve has been around for as long as life and within a day it was destroyed. It's a total destruction of nature, it's absolutely disgusting."
She highlighted the emotional impact on her community: "There's a lady who lives right across the road from it and she's in tears. We're completely appalled by the destruction; it's devastating to be so powerless in the situation."
She noted the deliberate timing of the land grab: "It's the bank holiday and no one has the chance to stop it before it's too late, so they've got four days to destroy habitats".
Community Protests and Legal Enforcement
Another concerned neighbour described the destruction beside the lock in the historic town: "Heavy machinery and diggers began bulldozing a beautiful wetland beside our village lock. The area is an important habitat for birds and other wildlife, and it is now being rapidly churned up and covered with large quantities of hardcore."
The neighbour added: "East Herts Council has issued a Temporary Stop Notice. However, despite that notice, machinery and vehicles are continuing to operate on the site and further material is being brought in."
Expressing frustration at authority action over the long weekend, the neighbour said: "The police are currently in attendance, but there appear to be only two officers dealing with the situation. Meanwhile, the destruction is continuing in real time."
The resident warned: "We are extremely concerned that by the time the relevant authorities are able to take effective action, this precious wetland and its wildlife habitat will have been irreversibly damaged."
"This is not simply a planning dispute. It is an environmental emergency happening right now, with heavy machinery actively destroying a wildlife habitat," the resident said.
Another resident told the Mail: "Many many residents are distraught, dismayed and feel very let down by the laws relating to this kind of destruction of wildlife habitats beside a lovely picturesque lock in a pretty historic small town."
Neighbours have organized a peaceful protest to be held at the lot on Sunday morning to convey their frustration, which they hope will help remove the workers quicker.
East Herts Council said in an official statement on Saturday morning: "Council officers have attended the site and we have issued a temporary stop notice, requiring any further unauthorised activity covered by the notice to cease immediately."
The council statement continued: "Our planning enforcement team will continue to closely monitor the site and investigate the works that have taken place. We will also work with Herts police to monitor the situation. We will consider what further enforcement action may be necessary and appropriate, and will provide a further update when we are able to do so."
Pattern of Bank Holiday Land Grabs
The incident in Sawbridgeworth follows a growing trend where developers purchase land in leafy parts of the Home Counties before swooping in to set up pitches over Bank Holiday weekends when council offices are closed. Planning permission is then sought retrospectively, with travellers often granted permanent rights to stay because of an unmet need for pitches in the region.
A similar Bank Holiday land grab occurred recently in Irby, Merseyside, a village on the Wirral Peninsula. Construction works suddenly began on a greenbelt plot located just yards from residents' homes, where three caravans, two diggers, two cars, and a van appeared on the land.
No planning application had been submitted for the works according to the Wirral Council planning portal, leading local residents to believe travellers bought the land to carry out unauthorised developments.
The Sawbridgeworth escalation also follows an incident last week in Dinton, Buckinghamshire, where travellers who held an entire village to ransom for £600,000 in a land grab scam applied to officially house caravans on the site after their blackmail attempt backfired.
The family bought the greenfield site, which is the size of a tennis court outside Dinton, in February for a reported £15,000 and immediately drove three caravans and a mobile home onto the plot. Diggers and lorries then moved onto the quarter-of-an-acre plot in a designated conservation area to lay hardstanding rubble.
Horrified villagers protested the illegal move, but were approached by two men who stated that if residents wanted them to leave, they could buy back the land for more than £600,000, forty times the £15,000 they are believed to have paid.
After all 800 villagers living in Dinton refused to bend to the demands, family patriarch Jimmy Doran officially applied to the council to turn the site into a permanent residence.
