A LANDOWNER has branded North Somerset Council’s planning department ‘bullies’ who are ‘out-of-control’ after a longstanding row over a caravan at his Nailsea stables.

Peter Harris, of Scotch Horn Way, applied for retrospective planning permission last month for a bioflow sewage system for the caravan, on his land at the Causeway, after being told it contravened the local plan because it is on a designated wildlife site.

Mr Harris told a meeting of Nailsea Town Council’s planning and environmental committee he informed North Somerset Council’s planning control department of his plans for the stables when he bought the land in 2004.

He claims he was told he could put a caravan on the land to store equipment and use it while he was tending his horses and bees.

However planning officers believed the caravan was being lived in and a series of enforcement notices were served but then quashed ever since.

Mr Harris admitted the caravan had been used by relatives and friends to live in on a temporary basis but because this had been happening for more than 10 years the law states he no longer needs planning permission.

Mr Harris said: “The planning department doesn’t know the law – if I want to put things on my land it’s my business.

“They are bullying me.

“The planning control department is out of control and I urge councillors to approve this planning application without further ado.”

The committee voted to refer the matter back to the district authority to make a decision.

A spokesman for North Somerset Council said: “We will be monitoring the situation but as long as the caravan is not being used for residential use he has permission to have it there.”