5:10pm Thursday 13th August 2009
By Oliver Evans
A COUNCIL is to spend £17,000 to help find gypsies land to live on.
Wycombe District Council will pay planning consultants to look for 17 legal pitches as demanded by Government.
It is hoped the move will deter gypsies and travellers moving onto land without planning permission, such as a site at Hemley Hill, Princes Risborough.
Factors to be taken into account include closeness to homes, surrounding land use, protected land, roads and accessibility to services such as doctors and schools, the council says.
A resident whose garden backs onto the Hemley Hill site – which neighbours say is too noisy and messy – backed the move.
Trisha Kelly, of Shootacre Lane, said: “It is better than leaving it up to travellers to buy any available land do what they have done.”
But Gypsy Council spokesman Joseph Jones said: “It should be at least double.
“The Government have acknowledged that Romany gypsies and Irish travellers are an ethnic group who have certain rights and the right to have their culture respected.”
He said the figures did not take into account a site closed by the council in 1992 in Booker.
About half of gypsies lived in houses, he said, but caravan users would suffer “mental stress problems which leader to physical health problems” if they cannot live in caravans.
But John O'Connell of the TaxPayers' Alliance said: “This is yet another expensive consultant's bill for the council.
“Taxpayers can't expect to pay ever more tax and increasing charges for declining frontline services.
“Wycombe's bureaucrats should be looking for spending cuts, not funding policy whims."
Most gypsies, travellers and showpeople – 72 per cent – thought the 1,064 pitches recommended for the south east was “much too low” an official consultation shows.
But this was only eight per cent for residents – while 47 per cent thought the number was “much too high”.
Bosses went ahead with 1,064 pitches as a final proposal. UK councils will get £18m cash support to help them find the pitches.
A previous consultation on the proposals said “representations which are based on racial prejudice or discriminatory stereotypes” would not be counted.
It said assumptions that gypsies take part in criminal activities, are violent, do not pay taxes or behave in an anti-social manner would be excluded.
Cllr Jean Teesdale, cabinet member for planning and sustainability, said the pitch number was not final.
She said: “We are aware that the provision for gypsies, travellers and travelling showpeople is of particular interest to Wycombe district residents at this stage, so we welcome constructive input to the consultant’s work.”
The proposal is for 15 gypsy and traveller and two travelling showpeople.
Views can be sent to Planning and Sustainability, Wycombe District Council, Queen Victoria Road, High Wycombe, Bucks HP11 1BB or spatial_planning@wycombe.gov.uk or on 01494 421 570 by August 31.
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