ROMANY gipsies are trying to win the seal of approval for their unauthorised encampment near Shipston.

Under the name of Ernest Willson and Families, they have applied to Stratford District Council for planning permission to construct 16 caravan pitches, with 16 hardstandings and 16 utility blocks, on the two-and-a-half acre site off the Fosseway at Darlingscott crossroads.

A date has yet to be set for the council planning committee meeting that will decide if the application, which the authority lists as valid, should be approved.

Birmingham County Court has meanwhile granted the council an interim injunction ordering the gypsies to temporarily stop constructing buildings and hardstandings on the land.

This injunction also stops the gipsies bringing more caravans and mobile homes onto the site.

Stratford District Council had applied to the court to have the encampment removed.

A date for the court's final hearing into the council's application has yet to be confirmed.

The site is only 200 yards from the country home of Olympics minister Tessa Jowell and her estranged husband David Mills.

About 100 English gypsies moved onto the site on Good Friday.

Cutting down hedges before several caravans arrived, they put up fences, brought in diggers to lay hardcore and installed water and electricity supplies.

Council officials visited the site to get more information and serve the gipsies with a temporary stop notice.

The police said they had no powers to act because, as the site was owned by the people occupying it, the gipsies were not trespassing.

At the time, Warwickshire county councillor Chris Saint told the Journal he had been inundated with telephone calls from worried residents.

Cllr Saint said the gipsies had "come in unannounced, unexpected and without planning permission".

He added: "We are all law-abiding citizens, so this is being viewed with considerable dismay.

"The main concern from members of the public who have contacted me is that an illegal act has taken place and they don't want people who break the law in their community."