Television historian David Starkey has thrown his weight behind a campaign to stop gypsies setting up camp on an idyllic countryside plot.

Neighbours in Barham and Elham are furious that permission has been granted for more than 40 temporary caravan spaces in the Nailbourne valley.

Yet site owner William John Smith – who refers to himself as a gypsy – has bulldozed swathes of the site to lay foundations for permanent hard standings.

Mr Smith has been ordered to remove tonnes of hard core, but campaigners claim he is ignoring conditions imposed on him.

Last month we revealed how public records show Mr Smith had recently been ordered by the secretary of state to stop using land in Middlesex as a gypsy pitch.

Starkey, an outspoken TV presenter who lives in Barham, has now backed calls for Mr Smith’s certificate for temporary caravans to be revoked altogether.

In a letter to the Elham Valley campaigners, Starkey has pledged his support to their cause.

He writes: “Elham Valley is itself a piece of history, resulting from the combined efforts of man at his most creative and constructive, husbanding the land knowingly and sympathetically, and nature doing what it does best, creating a landscape that is at once a beautiful and a generous provider for life on earth.

“The Elham Valley has through nature’s evolution over millennia given us fertile soil and pure, chalk-filtered water collected for us by the Nailbourne river.

“We put them at risk at our peril.

“The strongly stated opinion of the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty unit that what is happening on the water meadow at Wingham is wrong, environmentally damaging and must not proceed, is a wake-up call to society at large, the people of east Kent and their civic managers in particular.

“I wish you all the very best of luck in your fight for the preservation of the valley.”

The land, known as Elham Valley Holiday Park at the former Palm Tree pub on Canterbury Road, has existing permission for use for up to 45 touring caravans.

Campaign coordinator David Plumstead said critics of the scheme were arguing that permission should never have been granted by Shepway District Council in the first place.

He said: “This is a case of incompetent and ignorant behaviour by a local authority putting two fingers up to the law and many of its communities.

“What we’re saying is that in granting this certificate Shepway has not followed the proper rules.”