A GIPSY has decided to appeal to the Secretary of State against Darlington Council's refusal to let him set up a caravan site for his family.

Jim Mounsey, of Blackwell Moor Farm, Snipe Lane, has been turned down twice by the planning committee. It refused to allow him to provide an extra six pitches, together with wash houses, lavatories and showers, for other family members on his paddock.

On both occasions the committee went against its own officers' recommendations that it should approve the plans. Members said they feared the site would damage the countryside and they also argued that there was unsatisfactory access to the nearby A66 trunk road.

Now Hughie Smith, president of the Gipsy Council, is asking planners to suspend a decision on an application by Mr Mounsey's next door neighbour- who wants to convert a barn into a home - until the appeal has been heard.

He said Ken Dryden had objected to the caravan site, saying the extra accommodation would interfere with the water supply to his boarding kennels.

Mr Smith wanted the committee to be made aware that permission to set up the kennels had never been implemented, a fact the planning department disputes.

Adrian Miller, planning officer, said: "We would not suspend a decision on one application simply because another had gone to appeal."

There are already two caravans on the one-acre site at Hurworth Moor, which Mr Mounsey was allowed only after a successful appeal

Mr Smith said in his letter to the council that gipsies such as Mr Mounsey, attempting to cater for a family, should be encouraged.