22/04/2026
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Communities across Surrey are facing a wave of unauthorised traveller sites, with new locations appearing at an alarming rate.
The playbook is simple. Purchasers buy a plot of land, often rural and on Surrey’s protected green belt. Over a weekend or a bank holiday they carry out rapid works like topsoil removal, laying hardcore and pulling up hedgerows. The site is quickly filled with caravans and large mobile homes. All done with complete disregard for the law and creating a huge amount of anxiety for local residents.
As Brits, we classically dislike those who push in and break the rules. When the rest of us want to make changes to our homes, we must navigate copious amounts of forms and applications. We may not always agree with the level of regulation, but we put up with it because we are citizens of good standing and value good community relations. To see others ignoring the law and getting away scot-free is infuriating.
Local authorities, overwhelmed and under-resourced, simply cannot deal with the explosion in the number of sites. Enforcement powers get bunged up in the courts, and retrospective planning applications tie councils in legal red tape. Caravans pile in unabated.
East Surrey is the unfortunate epicentre. The Tandridge district has seen an astonishing spike in unauthorised caravans on traveller sites in recent years. Residents tell me the identity of their communities has shifted rapidly. Fly-tipping, reckless motorbike riding and confrontations in once-peaceful neighbourhoods have all increased.
Smallfield – a small village in my patch – is at the coalface. Not only have the surrounding fields been purchased and caravans moved on, but noxious fires have also been causing serious nuisance to families. Just recently I visited a site where two caravans were set alight and completely burnt. On the face of it, the two issues seem to be connected, and both cause community relations to break down.
Worryingly, recent investigations by the police and local authorities have also uncovered a new business model. Rather than being occupied by members of the traveller community, caravans are being offered to undocumented migrants, some of whom are working illegally in the gig economy.
This adds to the whole raft of illegal activities allegedly occurring on these sites: disregard of planning rules, tax evasion and now housing undocumented migrants. Residents are rightly fed up and are demanding action.
To their credit, Tandridge District Council has acted with urgency, winning a court case this year to stop three unlawful sites. But with the current wave of development, national Government must step in to bolster local efforts.
That is why I have led a group of thirty MPs and written to the Home Secretary demanding the Government launch a National Task Force. The Conservatives did this with other policing emergencies which covered multiple crimes, and it worked to concentrate efforts.
Loopholes that allow retrospective planning applications to be granted must be removed, and the requirement for traveller sites in the National Planning Policy Framework should be looked into.
Without this support, communities overwhelmed by these sites will continue to feel powerless. This is about fairness, being all equal before the law and protecting our beautiful countryside from people trying to destroy it.
✍🏽 Me for the Surrey Mirror
