A man who lives in a caravan on a Herefordshire farm has won an appeal against a notice forcing him to leave it.

He will, though, still have to leave the caravan and remove it within two years.

Graham Powell had previously been the sole tenant of Newton Farm, a holding near Dorstone owned by Herefordshire Council until it was sold in 2017.

The new owner of the farm “put him under severe pressure to leave”, Mr Powell’s agent said.

He agreed to leave the farmhouse in exchange for a cash payment and ownership of the field where the caravan now stands, where he also grows his own vegetables.

This also includes a farm building where he stores his remaining agricultural equipment, his agent’s statement said.

It added: “The land is registered with the local authority and the Post Office, and the appellant pays council tax on the property.”

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Mr Powell made an application for planning permission for the caravan in September 2019, but the council refused this in February this year, and served notice for him to quit in March.

This gave Mr Powell a year from April to leave the caravan, and a further month to remove it.

Mr Powell “has failed to demonstrate that there is an essential functional need for the caravan to accommodate a residential presence in an unsustainable countryside location which increases reliance on the use of private motorised transport”, the council said.

Mr Powell appealed both the refusal of permission, and the subsequent enforcement.

The council had been hasty in serving the enforcement, as it was aware that an appeal had already been made against the refusal of planning permission, his appeal statement said.

“There was no urgent requirement to serve the enforcement notice, because the change of use of the land would not become immune from enforcement for another seven years,” it added.

Herefordshire Council's own affordable housing provider, Homepoint, submitted that Mr Powell “has no accommodation that he is entitled to occupy” and that “it is most likely that he would be made homeless if he had to leave his caravan”.

If so, it would likely take “from six months to two years” for him to then be rehoused via Homepoint’s affordable housing waiting list, it said.

Mr Powell’s appeal statement said the council’s reference to his needing private transport was irrelevant, as he “has very little need to travel, and when he does so it is within the local area”, having “spent all his life within 10 miles of the appeal site”.

The planning inspector appointed to rule on the case agreed with the council that the caravan “does not accord with the council’s development strategy” and that its location “is also unacceptable in relation to access to everyday services and facilities”.

“However, I have attributed significant weight to the appellant’s personal circumstances in this case, including a lack of alternative accommodation at present,” the inspector said.

But he only gave planning permission for Mr Powell to remain in the caravan for two years – “during which time the evidence suggests that the appellant’s personal circumstances are likely to change”.

After this, “the caravan, all materials and equipment brought on to the land in connection with the use shall be removed”, the inspector said.