The traveller encampment off Norton Road near Woolpit has now become a national issue. David Ruffley was today reported in The Times expressing his concern. Mr Ruffley already last week asked some specific legal questions of Mid Suffolk District Council.

David Ruffley said today: 'My office has been deluged by calls from concerned villagers. I have established that although according to MId Suffolk District Council the travelling people may have broken planning law they are likely to use the current inadequate planning law to drag the matter out. I have had a discussion with David Ellis, the Head of Planning at Mid Suffolk District Council, and asked him to let me know by the end of this week what the next practical steps are that the Council can take to crack down on the enforcement of our planning laws.

In the meantime, I have pledged to my constituents and to the three local Parish Councils in Woolpit, Elmswell and Tostock that I will personally raise this planning mess by tabling written and oral Parliamentary Questions. I have also written to the Speaker of the House of Commons (Speaker Martin) requesting that he grants me an Adjournment Debate in the House of Commons after the House returns on 7 September. As the recent case in Wiltshire shows, if people want to 'work the system' they can. The law is an ass and needs changing. That's what I will be taking up personally in the House of Commons on behalf of my troubled villagers.'