Gypsy site planning proposals rejected - Glamorgan

TWO planning applications to set up Gypsy sites in different parts of the Vale of the Glamorgan have been refused. The bids to put Travellers’ caravans on sites at St Mary Hill, near Pencoed, and Bonvilston were blocked by Vale councillors as the authority’s officers continue to search for a suitable site for an official Gypsy settlement in the Vale. Both plans were submitted by Shropshire-based Green Planning Solutions which was acting as agent for Gypsy applicants. The St Mary Hill application involved stationing residential caravans on land to the west side of St Mary Hill. It was refused by the Vale council’s planning committee on the grounds that it would have a harmful impact on the countryside. The Bonvilston application centres on land at The Stables, Redway Road, and involved putting caravans on the site. The committee said it would be an “unsustainable, unacceptable and unjustified form of urban development” in the countryside which would result in the permanent loss of good quality agricultural land.