TRAFFIC chaos descended on Hullbridge yesterday afternoon... after mobile home got wedged in a country lane .

The travellers were trying to join up with other families on an illegal green belt camp, near Watery Lane.

Controversially planning permission was sought, and refused, for the camp earlier this year.

Yesterday witnesses told the Echo the mobile home got stuck at about 3.30pm - and consequently blocked traffic from passing in either direction for hours afterwards before being allowed to join the camp.

Pat Bickford, 78, who lives in the area, said: “When I got to the Hullbridge end of Watery Lane I noticed people turning back. I followed it for a bit and then realised why. The road is way too narrow for anything like that giant to be brought down there.”

The application, earlier this year, to Rochford District Council was for the Pumping Station, in Watery Lane, to use the land for the “stationing of caravans for the purpose of human habitation.”

Rochford District Council said were made aware of the situation.

They served an enforcement notice on the site after planning permission was refused earlier this year. The decision is currently being appealed and is with the Planning Inspectorate.

 As the site is within the green belt, developments can only be approved in special circumstances and the council officers did not believe these were.

The report said: “The proposal failed to provide evidence of very special circumstances to outweigh the impact of the proposal on the green belt.”

Jeff Atfield, 79, of Keswick Avenue, Hullbridge, and a member of the Hullbridge Residents’ Association,is outraged too.
He said: “It is an absolute nightmare. 

“That road is one of the main lifelines into Hullbridge and is used as a rat-run by commuters to reach the rest of the county. 

“Rochford Council served them an enforcement notice and they are just refusing to leave. 

“This has been going on for so long and it’s never going to end. But they aren’t interested in moving.

“There are currently four large caravans, three smaller ones and a mobile home. 

“They’re also building some kind of wooden structure. It just keeps growing. Something has to be done.”