A HORSE owner has been saddled with a five-figure fine for a host of planning breaches on her Meon Valley site.

Basingstoke Magistrates’ Court heard Jane Soul built a stable block and installed a plumbed-in caravan on her land in Privett without planning permission.

The 65-year-old from Eastleigh also added hard surfacing and a shipping container at the rural site between 2016 and 2020.

The saga began in 2013 when Soul erected a stable and started keeping horses on the site. She was served with an enforcement notice forcing to remove the development and the horses and initially complied.

But she then redeveloped the site, adding larger stables and hard surfacing before purchasing land to the south and adding a shipping container and residential-style caravan with mains connections. She was served with another enforcement notice, ordering her to remove the development, but this too was ignored.

A decade of work by the Planning Enforcement and Legal Team at East Hampshire District Council ended with Soul being found to breach three notices.

The judge said Soul’s actions showed a “deliberate failure” to comply with the planning authority and the “crystal clear” requirements of the notices. She was ordered to pay more than £12,000 in costs and fines and return the site to its original state.

Councillor Angela Glass, EHDC portfolio holder for regulation and enforcement, said the council was going to be tough on people who break the planning rules.

She added: “This has been a long-running case but our enforcement teams don’t give up lightly.

“I am very pleased we have managed to bring this case to court and the council has successfully prosecuted the offenders.”