A local councillor has been left outraged after an unauthorised traveller site was built on her community's doorstep in the space of a weekend.
Speaking to GB News, Bramley Councillor Jane Austin said herself and residents are "devastated" after the "illegal" construction began in order to move the traveller community in.
The group descended on the site late on Friday night in what has been dubbed a "military operation", using construction equipment to rip up a field, smash up hedges and lay down fencing.
Locals have witnessed at least five caravans set up on the encampment, which had not been granted prior planning permission by Guildford Borough Council.
Bramley Councillor Jane Austin hit out at the unauthorised traveller site, telling GB News the community is 'devastated'
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Discussing the site on GB News, Mrs Austin said: "It's the GRT community, as far as we're aware, the Gypsy Roma Traveller community, and this is what's happening all over the country, actually, but this is a particularly egregious example of it."
Highlighting how quickly construction was completed, she explained: "They've bought a piece of the field, and Friday night the next door farm was looking out onto a rural landscape, the highest grade of land you could possibly have in the country.
"By Saturday morning, there was truck upon truck of aggregate being laid all over it, access made, hedgerow ripped down, and by Sunday night, Monday morning, it was job done. There's sewage tanks installed and caravans on site."
Pointing out that they "didn't have planning permission at the time", Mrs Austin told GB News that incidents like this are becoming a huge issue.
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The unauthorised site was set up over the weekend, 'devastating' locals
|The Bramley Councillor stated: "They had no planning permission at the time, and this is what's happening, they do the work and then ask for permission afterwards.
"So my community, we're absolutely devastated. We did all the right things. On Saturday morning we called the police, we called the council, we called the planning enforcement team and we said 'you've got to get someone on site right now'."
She revealed: "We said we need a planning stop notice that they enforce and, well, none of us got any response. We were told eventually that someone will come on Monday morning to inspect the site, but by then it's too late."
Weighing in on the incident, host Miriam Cates argued that often councils find it "too difficult" to reject planning permission if structures have already been built.
Miriam told GB News: "And all too often what happens is, if you apply for retrospective planning permission, it's too difficult for the council to to tell you to tear it down.
"Then there's appeal processes, and essentially they are jumping the gun and assuming that if they manage to build something, it will never be removed."
Councillor Jane Austin said locals were 'ignored' when the issue was flagged to authorities
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Mrs Austin responded: "That's what they're banking on, that's the whole point. They're frustrating the planning system, using the laws that we all abide by but not applying them to themselves. And this is what's really frustrating all of us locally.
"We all follow the law and we all really care about the area that we live in, it's beautiful and we want to protect it. And just to see it devastated like that, we're talking potentially years and years of planning enforcement action and if ever enforcement is actually taken."
In a statement, a spokesman for Guildford Borough Council told GB News: "We're aware of the work carried out over the weekend on the site in Unstead Lane, Bramley, and understand the concerns raised by local residents. We're investigating as a priority.
"Council officers have been on site and completed other background work to gain a full understanding of the situation, to inform our next steps.
"We can't predict or prevent this type of incident occurring, but we will react and manage it as quickly as possible."