A traveller, Simon McDonagh, has been given a suspended jail sentence after setting up an illegal camp site near a village in Stafford Borough.

The council was granted an interim injunction to prevent McDonagh from continuing to develop the site and allowing more caravans on to the land at the rear of Stallington Road near Blythe Bridge.

McDonagh did not have planning permission to change the use of the agricultural fields into a traveller site.

After being issued with a 'Stop Notice' and then an interim injunction, he continued to bring hardcore onto the land to further develop it into an unauthorised traveller site, a judge was told.

Last month, McDonagh appeared at the County Court in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent.

He was given a two-month prison sentence suspended for two years after pleading guilty to being in breach of the interim injunction.

He admitted being in breach by:

• Bringing onto site multiple deliveries of hardcore and other materials between 11 and 13 September last year
• Being responsible for groundworks carried out on the site on 13 September 2025

McDonagh was made to remove caravans, trailers and plant machinery from the land; remove a perimeter fence that had been erected; and take away the hardcore, pipes and septic tank from the site following the proceedings.

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The injunction was extended by the court and will remain in place until December 2031.

Council solicitor Lucy Taylor-Grime, said that the council had received several complaints from local people about caravans moving onto the land as well as the fields being developed into an unauthorised site.