Winsford says 'no' to proposed Gypsy site

ANGRY residents, councillors, racists and business leaders from Winsford gathered on Wednesday to protest against controversial plans to develop a permanent Gypsy site in the town.

The application for 20 permanent Gypsy and Traveller pitches on land off Barlow Drive has prompted a number letters of objection to Cheshire West and Chester Council’s planning department.

At a meeting of Winsford Town Council’s planning committee on Monday furious residents said the site will only add to the town’s woes.

Gary Hoather, of the Over residents group, said: “I find it quite offensive in the report that the jobs allocation in Winsford is not as important as this site.
“We have one of the lowest percentages of employment in Cheshire.
“The perception rather than the reality will put people off moving to the area and businesses will be concerned about expanding.”

Resident, Sharon Newall, added: “Why is it that Winsford gets dumped with everything?
“When I had someone to come out to value my house recently I was told Winsford was the poor relation of Cheshire and the same house somewhere else in the county would be worth much more.”
Concerns were also raised about wildlife habitations and the existence of great crested newts on the site, flooding, and impact the proposed site will have on businesses in the area.

Bob Washington, of Solutech, on Woodford Park Industrial Estate, said: “We produce food additives for a number of household names and we have people from those companies come to visit our site annually to do audits.
“When we came to this site about 10 years ago we were assured by a very active councillor at the time that this would be a clean and industrial area for us to operate.It saddens me to think this may not be the case in the future.”

Resident Graham Peattie, who worked in the private housing sector for 25 years and managed Gypsy and Traveller sites in Halton said Winsford has nothing to offer travelling communities.

He added: “I have managed some of the Gypsy sites in Holton and it doesn’t work.What the council is looking at is the importation of Gypsies and Travellers in the area but there is no occupation for them.They always prefer the heavy industrial areas where they can work in tarmacking, tree felling and metal dealing.It also won’t do anything to improve the economy of this area and it will increase the security costs of business on that site.”

Charlie Parkinson, former councillor, agreed.
He said: “Has anyone asked the Travellers if they want to come to Winsford, or is this being forced upon them? I am told that they want to be along the M56 corridor.More houses are being built along Oakmere Road, how on earth is this developer going to be able to sell these homes with a Gypsy site a quarter of a mile away?”