Sewage row delays decision on Somerset travellers' site

Joshua Longhurst-Roberts runs Butleigh Landscaping on Wood Lane in the village of Butleigh, near Glastonbury, and secured permission from Mendip District Council in November 2018 to site six static caravans to use as holiday lets.

After clearing the site and siting three such caravans within the land, Mr Longhurst-Roberts applied in September 2020 for partially retrospective permission to retain the caravans as travellers' pitches.

A decision on the plans has been repeatedly delayed by the ongoing phosphates crisis, with the district council and its successor Somerset Council working with the applicant to secure mitigation to prevent any further damage to the Somerset Levels and Moors.

Somerset Council's planning committee east met in Shepton Mallet on February 3 to consider the plans afresh, having deferred a decision only the previous month.

Static caravan within the Butleigh Landscaping site on Wood Lane in Butleigh (Image: Heriz Payne)

But now a decision could be put off until the summer due to uncertainty over whether sewage from the site is being properly and legally treated.

Each of the three caravans within the site are occupied by related members of the same traveller family, who intend to grow food on the site as well as running the landscaping business.

The site will include an orchard, vegetable patch and 'wild garden' area, with play facilities to "create a safe enclosed environment for living well together, and for the stable upbringing of the applicants’ children".

Planning officers established during a site visit in January that a septic tank had been installed within the site and two shipping containers had been sited on the land, one of which was currently being used as "overspill accommodation" for the family living on site.

Local resident Mark White spoke against the plans when the council's planning committee east (which handles significant applications within the former Mendip area) met in Shepton Mallet on February 3.

Shipping containers within the Butleigh Landscaping site on Wood Lane in Butleigh (Image: Somerset Council)

He said: "The septic tank has not been fitted correctly. The tank discharges into a stream, which is illegal.

"In spite of saying they want to fit in with the community, the applicant has not improved the site in the five years they have been there; in fact, it's worse now.

"They have added to the accumulated rubbish on the site, and they will continue to act with impunity if you approve this application."

Neighbouring resident Andy Coleman concurred: "Avalon Waste was asked by the occupiers of the site on New Year's Eve to empty what is described as a 'treatment plant', when it's no such thing - it's a septic tank.

"Please defer a decision until the waste issue is sorted legally and until ecology reports have been obtained.

Storage area within the Butleigh Landscaping site on Wood Lane in Butleigh (Image: Somerset Council)

"We know the pressure your officers are under to agree such sites, but that should not be at the expense of your own policies and guidelines.

"Please be realistic of your enforcement capacity. None has been apparent to us over the last five years."

Chief planning officer Alison Blom-Cooper admitted in late-January that the council was heavily reliant on staff from Lichfield District Council in Staffordshire to carry out its planning enforcement work.

Gemma Johnson, who lives within the site, said that the septic tank had been inspected by planning officers during their recent visit and had been recently emptied.

She added: "We have records from the Environment Agency, which investigated the site six years ago, confirming that the existing sewage system is suitable for up to six plots.

Plans to retain three static caravans at Butleigh Landscaping on Wood Lane in Butleigh (Image: Heriz Payne)

"We are committed to being good neighbours. We are happy to work closely with the council to ensure that all lighting in the site is low-impact, ecologically sensitive to local wildlife and respectful to our neighbours' privacy.

"We have already begun planting a native hedge along the property boundary - though some sections require replanting due to the interference of some horses.

"We will ensure the shipping containers are dealt with in strict accordance with local guidelines.

"Since we took stewardship of this land, we have transformed it into a green, clean family homestead. We are a travelling family who simply want to call Butleigh home and continue being responsible members of this community."

Richard Burdett, who has lived in Butleigh since 1972, added: "The village is slowly dying, having lost its pub and shop and the pupil numbers in the school are low.

"This application offers something different from the planned commercial developments which include large, expensive houses that typically do not support young families in the area."

The committee previously voted in December 2025 to approve plans for 32 homes on Sub Road in the village, a stone's throw from the Wood Lane site.

Simon Trafford, the council's senior planning officer, said that another deferral may be necessary to establish whether it was a septic tank or a package treatment plant that had been installed.

Package treatment plants chemically dose the collected sewage from a given development to remove large quantities of phosphates before they enter the local watercourses (in this case, within the River Brue catchment).

Mr Trafford said: "We've been told one thing, the public speakers have been told another thing through a third party.

Butleigh Landscaping on Wood Lane in Butleigh (Image: Daniel Mumby)

"Unfortunately, I can't provide you with any more information. We haven't had any of the paperwork which would have been provided when that infrastructure was installed."

Councillor Ros Wyke, who chaired the meeting, said: "This is beginning to feel like we are going down a rabbit hole. I'm not convinced that we've got the enforcement capacity on this."

The committee voted by eight votes to three (with one abstention) to delay a decision on the plans by up to six months until the additional information could be provided.