'We're trying to set up home, not a travellers' site', says Haddon Road gypsy family in Stamford

A gypsy family that bought a plot of land on a Stamford housing estate have said they are simply trying to set up home, not a travellers’ site.

Jamie Smith, 30, spoke out after the district council served a notice ordering him to cease work on the Haddon Road site.

Mr Smith said he, his wife and three children had been the victims of prejudice from neighbours and had done nothing wrong.

Photographs were posted on Facebook of a caravan being moved onto the site, which had been surfaced with gravel and fenced in.

He had spoken with a member of South Kesteven District Council’s planning team on Friday and had agreed not to carry out any more work. No further conversations had taken place.

“I’ve done nothing wrong as far as I know,” said Mr Smith, who bought the plot around three weeks ago.

“It’s not going to be a travellers’ site, despite what people are saying. It’s just for me, my wife and my kids. It’s a family home.

“You shouldn’t need planning permission to put stones and a fence on your own property. If people here are that worried about caravans then I will be more than happy to go down the legal route to build some kind of home.”

He added: “I don’t know why they are making such a big fuss now because I told them all from the start what I was doing.”

Mr Smith said residents had used their cars and vans to block access to his plot over the weekend, meaning he had to drive over a grass area to get inside.

“I asked them to move their vehicles but they wouldn’t,” he said. “There were people screaming and shouting; my wife felt very frightened.

“A lot of them just don’t want us there; it’s very prejudiced.”

He also denied that he had put playing children in danger by driving across the grass, as some people had suggested, and said he had video evidence to prove this.

A community letter son behalf of residents of Haddon Road, signed by 30 people from the area, said they expected “full due process to be carried out and the land returned to its original grass state”.

It continued: “Stamford has been blitzed with house building and is now having its green spaces targeted on finished estates. Should this work be allowed it will set a precedent for other areas in the town.”

South Kesteven District Council has been approached for a comment.