A PLANNING battle to keep two residential caravans with car parking, a shed and poly tunnels at Dragon’s Corner by the entrance to Colliford Lake Park goes on as planners have again refused the application.
Martin Dykes, a Romany gypsy by birth, bought the site in 2004 and initially lived there in a tent.
He now lives there in a caravan.
In 2012 there were discussions with the council about the land being used as a transit site for gypsies and travellers, but this did not go ahead.
In 2013 an enforcement file was opened by the council but closed on the grounds that Mr Dykes was working on the traveller site plan.
A further enforcement notice was served in July 2014 and Mr Dykes made an unsuccessful appeal.
A second enforcement notice was issued in November 2017 and a further appeal was dismissed.
In 2019 Cornwall Council commenced proceedings against Mr Dykes – he pleaded not guilty and sought to have the proceedings declared an abuse of process
Planners said the current application would have resulted in caravans for residential use being in a location isolated from settlements and divorced from services and facilities and would degrade the natural beauty of the landscape of the Bodmin Moor section of the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.