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11
Jun
Government to decide whether Knaresborough Gypsy family must demolish bungalow
A government planning inspector will decide next week if a Gypsy family has to demolish a bungalow it built without planning permission on green belt land in Knaresborough.
The house, on Cass Lane, off Forest Moor Road, was built on land owned by Shane Hooton and Tracy Hooton for their son Shane Jnr and his wife Jade.
North Yorkshire Council issued an enforcement notice in January ordering the family to cease using the home and demolish it as well as an unfinished outbuilding, boundary fence and gate.
But the family claims it should be allowed to stay, and its appeal will be determined at a hearing at Harrogate Civic Centre on June 16.
In appeal documents, the council claims “the principal and determining issue” is the “harmful effect” of the home in open countryside and on green belt land.
It says:
The site is highly visible within the surrounding area due to the topography of the land and the nearby public right of way, the development has eroded the open countryside aspect which is to the detriment of the surrounding landscape setting, again contrary to both national and local polices.
But the Hootons claim the land should be classified as grey belt and the home “was substantially complete four years from the date of the enforcement notice served on 15 January 2026 and as such the development is lawful”.
The council disputes this.
A document outlining the family’s grounds of appeal, written by planning consultants Stovell & Millwater, describes the family as a “well established and respected Gypsy family” who work as horse dealers.
The document said:
We consider that the very special circumstances that need to exist to warrant approving development in the green belt exist in this case.
Those special circumstances entail an unmet need for housing sites, a lack of self-build sites, an unmet need for plots to accommodate Gypsies in Harrogate; the personal circumstances of this Gypsy family whose children are embedded in the local schools and local clubs; the limited impact of the development on the openness and appearance of the green belt and the positive use of an otherwise unusable waterlogged land during winter.
The document also says the Human Rights Act 1998 supports the family’s case to stay.
The council has agreed to give the family a year to comply with the enforcement notice if it wins next week’s appeal rather than the original six months. The Hootons have requested three years.
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