Plans to remove travellers from an unauthorised site in Wickford are progressing.

Basildon Council will return to the High Court to request the removal of an exemption to an order which is allowing travellers to stay on an unauthorised site.

Notices have been served on the occupiers of land west of Hovefields Avenue, Wickford, advising them of the Council’s application for a two-day hearing.

The site is covered by an injunction made in October 2016 preventing further development of the land, which is designated green belt. Planning enforcement notices requiring the land to be restored to its previous condition remain outstanding. The latest court action is in line with decisions made by the Council’s Planning Committee at its meeting held on 20 February 2018.

Occupation of the site has changed since the injunction order was first issued by the court in 2016. In June 2017, Mr Justice Singh varied the injunction to allow eleven named defendants and six caravan pitches to remain until all legal remedies had been exhausted.

More recently, a new family who had arrived on one of the plots in breach of the injunction left after being directed to do so by Basildon Council officers.

The hearing is set to take place during the trial window of Wednesday 20 June to Friday 27 July.