(Image: Google Maps)
A group of people must leave the roadway where they say they have lived for more for five years, a district judge has ruled.
North Yorkshire Council applied for an order at York Magistrates' Court to force Paul Nelson and those with him to move.
Mr Nelson, who gave his address as “an unnamed road off Whaites Lane, Asenby” near Thirsk, objected to the order being made and said it would make him and those with him homeless.
He said he had been at the site since 2020 without a problem.
Another person who lives on the site said Google Maps would show that the group had been living on the land.
Council witness Christian Hooper said there had been a caravan on the site previously which had been damaged by fire.
“Within the five years, there was a period when there was no encampment there,” he said.
After hearing his evidence and Mr Nelson’s views on the application, district judge Mark Daley made the order that will enable the council to remove the Nelson group from the unnamed road, which both sides agreed is a public highway.
Matthew Snowden, for the council, told the court it had received a complaint from a member of the public about the Nelson group’s presence on the road.
The group did not have authorisation to live on the site, he said.
When council officers investigated the site, they found three vehicles there on June 26, and on June 29, there was a caravan, a tent and a motor vehicle present.
The council had served legal notices on those occupying the site requiring them to leave, but the people did not leave, said Mr Snowden.
Mr Nelson disputed that there was a tent on the land. He said there had never been a problem with him living on the site until an extra vehicle arrived this summer to provide extra sleeping accommodation.
He asked how he could get authorisation to live on land which did not have an owner from whom he could get authorisation.
The district judge told him authorisation to live on a public highway could never be given, even by the public highways authority.