MP to attend public meeting over Risborough travellers (From Bucks Free Press)

MP to attend public meeting over Risborough travellers

4:12pm Monday 20th April 2009 in News By Simon Farr

MP to attend public meeting over Princes Risborough travellers

MP DAVID Lidington and Wycombe District Council chiefs are set to attend a special public meeting in Princes Risborough to discuss the Hemley Hill traveller site.

More than 200 concerned residents are also set to cram into the Royal British Legion headquarters on Thursday to voice their opinions after nine families moved on to the green belt site on Easter Friday.

Building work started by the travellers on their land has been temporarily stopped by Wycombe District Council, which called the work “unauthorised” after the families failed to apply for planning permission.

Councillors from Buckinghamshire County Council and surrounding town and parish councils will also attend the meeting, as will representatives from the Gypsy Council, as all parties look to resolve the situation.

Mr Lidington said his view, and the view of many of his constituents, was it was wrong for important planning rules to be ignored.

“If they had put in an application before hand, while it would have been unlikely to have been accepted on a green belt site, at least they would have gone down the correct channels,” he said.

He added that he hoped that he hoped all the facts of the case were laid out for everyone to see, so that councillors and residents could make up their own judgement before taking further action.

The travellers had previously told the Midweek they were “just looking for a place to call home” and would be of “no nuisance to neighbours.”

Patrick Hanrahan, 58, traveller and spokesman for the families, said: “Every penny I have has gone into this place, we just about scraped enough money together between us.

“We thought the council would try and stop us from building on the site but we've just got to fight it. We are all British subjects and we have as much right to be here as anyone else.”

Wycombe District Council said that it is expecting a planning application for the site to be submitted from the families in due course after the council provided the travellers with the relevant planning documents.

The meeting gets underway from 7.30pm at the Royal British Legion in Bell Street.