Government plan to find more gypsy sites (From Bucks Free Press)

Government plan to find more gypsy sites

9:00am Wednesday 24th June 2009 in News By Oliver Evans

Travellers at Hemley Hill

COUNCILS have been told to find land for about a quarter more legal gypsy plots in a bid to clamp down on rogue sites.

A consultation has been launched proposing 39 new caravan pitches on top of the 135 already in south Buckinghamshire.

Planning bosses argue the plans would crack down on illegal sites and, by providing a stable home, allow better access to services such as schools and the NHS.

And they said pitches could be earmarked on the Green Belt in “exceptional circumstances” – while “discriminatory” consultation responses would be struck out.

The location of the pitches has to be determined by councils, which would have to find the numbers by 2016.

The Government Office for the South East, said the lack of legal sites “makes it more difficult for an already socially excluded and discriminated-against part of the community to access employment, health care, education and other services”.

It said most gypsies and travellers thought the recommended numbers – slashed from original plans – were too low.

The plans are for 15 in Wycombe district, 15 in South Bucks and nine in Chiltern.

See the link at the bottom of this story for the full plans.

But the GOSE said only responses on “material grounds” would be taken on board – and it would “identify and challenge representations which are based on racial prejudice or discriminatory stereotypes”.

Such responses to its original plans had received “a factsheet to help them understand why the response was discriminatory”.

It said it is discriminatory “to assume or imply, without supporting evidence, that all gypsies and travellers do not pay council tax and constitute a financial burden on local authorities or society as a whole”.

It comes as another consultation closed this week on a planning application to put nine pitches at Hemley Hill, Saunderton, near Princes Risborough.

Gypsies illegally moved onto the site over the April bank holiday. They were slapped with a council injunction preventing further work but hope the application will make this legal.

Trish Kelly, whose home in Upper Icknield Way backs onto the site, said she hoped one place for 15 pitches would be found under the GOSE plans for the Irish travellers to move onto.

She said noise, littering and bonfires had blighted residents’ lives.

Estimating that 600 had opposed the application, Mrs Kelly said: “If there are stereotypes they are mostly true, unfortunately. The feelings in Risborough are running quite high.”

Aylesbury MP David Lidington, who represents the town, said: “If local residents and parish councils want to oppose or support the plan, they need to speak up now.”

The consultation – which runs to September 1 – also proposes finding travelling show people pitches with two in Wycombe, one in South Bucks and 16 in Chiltern.

The consultation runs to September 1. Write to Barbara Bay - Panel Secretary, The Planning Inspectorate, Room 4/02 Temple Quay House, 2 The Square, Temple Quay, Bristol, BS1 6PN. Email bbaysdnp@googlemail.com or call 0117 372 8424.