'We don't want another Dale Farm in Newent' - Gloucestershire

RESIDENTS are calling on council leaders to get tough on an unauthorised Travellers' site or risk having "another Dale Farm" on their hands. Pressure group Newent Residents Against Inappropriate Development (RAID) expects Forest of Dean District Council to act on a deadline of January 31 to return the Southend Lane site in Newent to its original state. ​Travellers' site in Newent Travellers' site in Newent Travellers moved in over the Whitsun Bank Holiday in May 2009, and lorryloads of stone were ferried through back lanes to the field they own off Culver Street. Late last year a government inspector gave them until January 2012 to quit the six-acre site. RAID chairman Mark Greening said if it is being lived on come the end of January, he does not want to see a situation similar to Dale Farm in Essex, where £18 million was spent over 10 years to get travellers off an unauthorised site. "We want this planning issue followed through," said Mr Greening. "We are not sure what is going to happen by January 31. "We have nothing against them, we never have. What we are concerned about is that the district council don't seem to have done much about it." Councillor Len Lawton (Con, Newent Central) said he and other members had been working hard to ensure sufficient authorised sites were available.