Gypsy family ordered to leave rural beauty spot
A Gypsy family say they have nowhere to go after councillors ordered them to leave a rural beauty spot.
Joanne Smith had hoped to settle down with her family on land off Windycote Lane in Dilhorne.
The 45-year-old bought the patch of land, for £19,000 and hoped it would provide a home for her, son John, daughter-in-law Marie and grandchildren Jodie Marie, aged two, and four-month-old John Conner.
But, at a meeting yesterday, Staffordshire Moorlands District Council’s planning committee refused the Romany family permission to stay.
Speaking after the meeting, Mrs Smith said: "We have got nowhere else to go. We are going to appeal, but we will have to go back on the road."
Mrs Smith had previously worked as a manager at a council-run gypsy site in Derbyshire. But she said she was forced to quit after a fight between two families in 2006.
