A traveller who faced jail over a controversial site at a north-east beauty spot has walked free from court after council chiefs failed in a bid to block the unauthorised camp.
James McCallum, 40, had been accused of breaching a legal order to halt work and further caravans arriving on land next to Esk View Farm, by St Cyrus.
However, Sheriff Alison Stirling found Aberdeenshire Council had failed to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that Mr McCallum had allowed the scheme to go ahead.
The decision means the local authority will have to use planning law if it wants to take further enforcement measures against the camp – but first it will have to establish who is responsible for the development.
Last night, a resident living close to the site said the council had been mn in dealing with the site which backs onto St Cyrus National Nature Reserve and has now been occupied for more than 10 months.
At Aberdeen civil court yesterday, Robin Taylor, solicitor for Aberdeenshire Council, claimed Mr McCallum had “fronted” the development, which is now home to around 20 caravans and served by running water and electricity.
“I have to suggest that you were in fact acting as a front person for whoever was developing the site and that you knew full well what was going on with the planning application, and that you agreed to it,” he said.
However, Mr McCallum insisted he had not carried out any work on site or instructed anyone else to do so.
The traveller also denied filling out the application for planning permission that had been submitted in his name.
Mr Taylor referred to evidence from witness Torquil MacLeod, a retired planning inspector, who said he had visited the site on a number of occasions in September and October 2013 and was of the view that Mr McCallum was in charge.
Mr McCallum denied that was true, insisting he had not spoken to Aberdeenshire Council about the development – but had given interviews to the press about the site.
Asked why he acted as spokesman, Mr McCallum said: “I can read and write a wee bit. I spoke for the lads on the caravan site.”
Handing down her judgement, Sheriff Stirling said she had found Mr MacLeod to be a credible witness but was not satisfied that the case for contempt of court had been proved beyond all reasonable doubt.
“The evidence in this case has been insufficient to find Mr McCallum in breach of interdict,” she added.
“I am not impressed by Mr McCallum’s evidence, that he was a spokesperson for the press for others on the site because they could not read and write and him knowing nothing about the planning application in his name. There is an obvious tension there.”
However, she said she could not “convert” that into finding that he had breached the interdict.
One resident living close to the site, who asked not to be named, said: “This is completely disappointing. Why on earth did Aberdeenshire Council not have a watertight case?
“They have been made to look a fool of and they have been totally ineffective and ineffectual in dealing with this.”
A spokesman for Aberdeenshire Council said it was looking at all options available to it to deal with the site.