TRAVELLERS have been given the green light to stay on a site near Ilminster after a government inspector allowed their appeal.

South Somerset District Council originally rejected a planning application which asked for the site to be converted from agricultural land to residential use.

An enforcement notice was also issued, which would have required the travellers to cease residential use of the land, remove all unauthorised mobile homes, remove the internal access road within the site and restore the land to its former condition.

However, after an appeal, the decision by SSDC was overturned by Tim Belcher, an inspector appointed by the Secretary of State for Communications and Local Government, although conditions have been put in place.

The conditions include moving the current access road for the site 65m west, in order to respect a local heritage site, the Grade II listed gateway which leads to Rowland’s Farmhouse and Rowlands Mill, which is adjacent to the current access road.

Other conditions include limiting the residents of the new site to those currently living there, and that when the site ceases to be used by the occupants “the site shall be restored to its condition before the development took place.”

Following the successful appeal, the enforcement notice has been quashed.

The new site, named Palm Drive, is on land just off Cad Road, Ashill, near Ilton and also borders Butts Lane.