An application to extend a gypsy site from two caravans to seven has been rejected by Monmouthshire County Council at its planning meeting on Tuesday

The field site off a slip road of the A449 Usk interchange has been used as a permanent base for an extended Romany Gypsy family since the application was upheld on appeal in 2011.

A push to add another five pitches to the encampment was rejected by MCC after it found the application for the site on greenbelt land adjacent to Upper Maerdy Farm, Llangeview, would impinge on the ‘special character’ of the area.

Councillors also found the application would ‘blow a hole’ in their usual planning rulebook as they deemed the location ‘unsustainable’ for further development.

A lack of school and healthcare access added to the reasons for rejection as Councillors agreed that those services, and that of shops, were inaccessible by public transport, foot or bicycle.

The applicants, including a Mr Tom Lee, 22, wished to move from their current arrangement at the Shirenewton site, near Cardiff.

Councillors found the applicants had failed to provide ‘exceptional circumstances’ which would allow MCC to consider bending their usual planning rules.

Councillors found ‘no compelling reasons’ why the applicants could not remain on their current site, despite Mr Lee’s links of family heritage to the area.

Councillor David Pollitt, of Llantrisant Fawr Community Council, said the proposal would impact on the ‘local character’ of the village, and was not supported by evidence of proven need, given that the site was used ‘sporadically’ by its current occupants.

Councillor Roger Harris said that a lack of communication on the applicants’ part hamstrung the proposals.

“In this situation, we need to have absolute clarity for this sort of development in the open countryside.

“We are not getting that. If we did, it may have made the decision easier,” he said.

“We also have a conflict between what the applicant has just told us — that he is not allowed to stay on his site in Cardiff — and what the site manager in Cardiff has actually told us. They are diametrically opposed, unfortunately.

“We’d be blowing a hole in one of our major policies if we said ‘yes’. It makes it impossible for me to support the application.”

The proposal was rejected by a unanimous vote.