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A council is to decide what to do about a Gypsy encampment in Warwickshire 200 yards from the country house of Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell. About 100 English Romany Gypsies arrived at the site on Friday. They set up water and electricity supplies before erecting fences and putting down paving for 32 caravans close to Shipston-on-Stour. Stratford-on-Avon Council, which calls itself the lead authority on the case, said it is examining all options. In a statement, it said: "Stratford-on-Avon District Council is the enforcement agency responsible for planning and environmental health issues. "Currently the council is... considering what appropriate action to take with regards to this unlawful development." Tory councillor Chris Saint, from Warwickshire County Council, believes the Gypsies used the four-day public holiday to move onto the field, which they bought more than a year ago, to avoid opposition from the local authority. On Monday Mr Saint, who represents the area, said: "We view it with alarm because I have no information about a planning application even being lodged, let alone granted, and I would be the first to know." Asked whether he thought the Gypsies targeted the bank holiday weekend as no-one would be working at the council's offices, Mr Saint said: "We don't know that for certain. "But the speculation is that they have done this because there is a four-day window when officialdom is unlikely to get to them." 'Legitimate businesses' Zack Follows, 31, a father of four who has moved on to the site, said 16 plots have been sold for about £20,000 each. Mr Follows said: "The council is supposed to be supplying sites for the Gypsy community but no sites are being provided and there is nowhere for the community to go. "We have got piles of papers from how many times we have been refused sites. "At the end of the day, we cannot keep on being pushed from pillar to post. "One hundred percent of the people here are taxpayers who have legitimate businesses."
What became of her husband anyhow?
Miss Jowell, 60, would only say that it was a matter for her estranged husband. She said: "It's my husband's house and my husband and I are separated. It's for him to manage."
David Mills, the estranged husband of the Olympics Minister, who owns the spacious Cotswold home, described the development as an "outrageous breach of planning law".
The couple separated in March 2006 after he was accused by Italian prosecutors of taking a £344,000 bribe from ex-Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, in return for giving a favourable testimony of Mr Berlusconi in court. Miss Jowell was dragged into the affair when it emerged that she had signed papers connected to a loan secured on their London home, which was subsequently paid off with the help of the alleged bribe. She has always insisted that she believed the deal involved no conflict of interest. They have since sold the £950,000 north London house. Mr Mills, a lawyer, is due to face trial on corruption charges next month in Italy.
