A SENIOR Hertsmere planner has admitted temporary planning permission should have been granted to a gypsy camp in Shenleybury.

Andrew Smith was grilled today at the Shenleybury Cottages planning inquiry, and asked to justify the decisions taken in the case by Hertsmere Borough Council.

Alan Masters, representing the site’s occupier Sarah Price, pointed out councillors had agreed the case fell into “very special circumstances” because there were no available gypsy sites in the borough, but shortly afterwards an enforcement notice was issued on Ms Price, in March this year.

Mr Smith admitted there is “no planning policy that support that approach”, but he later insisted the enforcement notice was an expedient course of action to take.

When Mr Masters argued there was no planning justification for not granting the application, the senior planner agreed - “for a temporary period”.

And when pressed further on the enforcement notice served on Ms Price, Mr Smith said: “Perhaps the answer is that it possibly could be not expedient to issue an enforcement notice at the time.”

However, later in his evidence, he defended the council’s decision to issue an enforcement notice with a two-year compliance period because by the end of that time, new pitches may have become available.

Relying on a broader view of the issues involved in the case, he said: “I’m saying it was very helpful to the occupant to allow two years as a way of allowing the occupant to find a new pitch.”

Mr Masters accused him of “defending the indefensible” and said the council had not followed planning guidance and contradicted itself when handling this case.

Mr Smith’s testimony comes on the second day of a planning inquiry, as Ms Price seeks to overturn the council’s refusal to give her planning permission for a caravan, a generator, and a portable toilet.

Yesterday, the hearing at the council’s offices in Elstree Way received evidence from residents, who highlighted alleged anti-social behavior since the site was occupied in April last year, as well as complaints about the way the site had been occupied without planning permission.

Mr Masters called on Alison Heine, a gypsy and traveller specialist, who testified that the site in Shenleybury was one of the best she had ever seen for gypsies.

Mr Smith disputed her assessment, saying it has "attributes that support its use and attributes that don't".

But he admitted he has not dealt with a gypsy site application before and had not visited sites in the borough since his appointment in Hertsmere in July this year.

The inquiry is due to conclude at the end of today, with a judgement from the planning inspector likely to be delivered several weeks later.