A GIPSY landowner has said he will appeal after being refused planning permission to allow his elderly parents to settle on his land. Fred Adams, who bought a plot of land in Somersham, said he was not surprised to have been turned down by Huntingdonshire

A GIPSY landowner has said he will appeal after being refused planning permission to allow his elderly parents to settle on his land.

Fred Adams, who bought a plot of land in Somersham, said he was not surprised to have been turned down by Huntingdonshire District Council's development control panel on Monday night (April 20) but he was prepared to take the fight further.

He said: "I expected this decision and I am grateful for the one councillor who gave us some support. We have briefed barristers for an appeal."

Mr Adams had presented two applications, one for permanent change of use of agricultural land to a travellers' site with six pitches and another for a site with two pitches - one for his elderly parents and one for other members of the family.

The panel refused both applications for The Paddock in Chatteris Road.

Councillor Paul Ursell proposed that since the elderly parents were currently living in what he described as "appalling conditions" and because they were ill, the family be granted temporary permission for two pitches.

However, no one supported the motion.

Planning officers had recommended the applications were refused as it would impact, among other things, on an adjoining equestrian business.

An application for change of use of land to a traveller site for one traveller family at land south east of Old Toll Br House, Toll Bar Lane, Keyston was also refused.