I don't know the area involved, Foolestroupe, but guess that what we have here is some kind of Rare Breeds scheme on a couple of fields which have been bought or possibly rented from a larger farm. What the 'farmer' is trying to do is site a residential caravan on the fields.
We have had a similar situation locally with a small plant nursery sited on someone else's land, The lady who owns the field is a widow, and the two young guys who are prepared to work it live some distance away. I'm not sure what our local planners made of the application.

By the way, the punchline to the original story is that the chief suspect, as the result of a years delay, is no longer a councillor anyway, so there is nothing that the Standards Board can do to him!
Baaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!

FC