Taplow scrapyard must go as inspector brands it 'an unwelcome scar on countryside'

Unauthorised caravans and a scrapyard set up on greenbelt land in Taplow must be removed within seven months, a Government planning inspector has ruled.

In a scathing decision notice published this month, inspector Robin Buchanan said the scrapyard was ‘an unwelcome scar’ on ‘a large swathe of what was pleasant countryside’.

Enforcement notices demanding an end to the operations at the Huntswood Lane site – a greenbelt field by Cliveden Road once used for equestrian sports – were served in early 2024.

The notices warned the landowners had breached planning laws and said all caravans, vehicles and vehicle parts should be removed.

Then, the field should be returned to its former condition.

But Bogdan Grudzinski, one of eight registered parties issued with notices, appealed Buckinghamshire Council’s action to the Government Planning Inspectorate.

A statement on behalf of Mr Grudzinski claimed the scrapyard was providing a service that could be considered ‘in some ways an emergency service’.

It argued the area around the greenbelt field scrapyard site was ‘very much one of urban fringe’ and that ‘it cannot be said the character of the area is undeveloped’.

The statement added: “The nature of the business being vehicle rescue, vehicle storage and associated vehicle paraphernalia is in some ways an emergency service.

“The availability of local rescue vehicles is key to wider highway network safety through the repair or movement of broken down vehicles.”

It also said staff living at the site had been ‘vacated’ from a previous location, ‘leaving them with stationing on the appeal site for a limited period’.

Staff had ‘very limited’ English and were ‘not familiar with the law of the land’, the statement to the Planning Inspectorate said.

The inspectorate is a government organisation that investigates and resolves planning disputes between local authorities and applicants.

Buckinghamshire Council enforcement officers doubled down on their objections in the appeal.

In a submission to the inspector, officers said: “The appellant’s claim that the site is part of an ‘urban fringe’ is entirely without merit.

“It is patently clear that the site is situated within a rural area.”

In the ruling, Inspector Buchan said the scrapyard and caravans did not ‘safeguard this part of the countryside from encroachment, in conflict with [the] purpose of the greenbelt’.

The decision said: “This industrial, urban scale of development has demonstrably undermined the rural nature of the land which detracts from its immediate setting.

“An unwelcome scar with catastrophic visual and spatial adverse impact on the landscape across a large swathe of what was pleasant countryside.”

Inspector Buchanan said there was ‘little evidence that looking for alternative living arrangements’ for the caravan occupants ‘would be unusually difficult’.

However, the inspector said that a new location for the ‘vast’ amount of detritis stored at the site would ‘not likely be straightforward or achieved quickly’.

An extension to the original two-month compliance period on the council enforcement notices would also mean conditions were better to reseed the ruined grassland, the inspector said.

The landowners have been given until March 2026 to comply.