Four new Stourport sites added to Traveller pitch shortlist - Kidderminster

ANOTHER four places in Stourport have been added to Wyre Forest's Gypsy and Traveller site shortlist.

Following consultation on seven potential sites, Wyre Forest District Council has been asked by residents to consider the following additional areas:

• The Gatehouse, Sandy Lane - eight pitches
• 28/29 Sandy Lane - six pitches
•1a Broach Road - one pitch.
• Land off Wilden Lane - one site for travelling showpeople north of the industrial estate.

District council officers have already decided to recommend the following Stourport sites:

• Saiwen, Sandy Lane - five pitches.
• Nunn’s Corner, Sandy Lane - four pitches.
• The Gables Yard, Broach Road three pitches.

These are all areas where Gypsy and Traveller communities are already living without formal authorisation.

Officers have also recommended that sites at Manor Farm in Stourport, Stourport Road in Bewdley, the former Sion Hill school in Wolverley and Lea Castle in Cookley should be struck off the shortlist.
Councillors have not yet discussed the four new sites but will consider them at meetings in January.

If Councillors decide that one or more of the plots should be included in the Site Allocations and Policies Development Plan Document, it will consult on them for six weeks, but no public meetings are planned.
The additional round of consultation is expected to take place in February and March to give residents a chance to have their say.

Liberal leader on the district council, Fran Oborski, who chairs the Local Development Framework (LDF) panel, said: “On this occasion, it is helpful that people should know what officers are recommending to the panel so that there is full transparency about the process.”

She added: “The panel looks forward to considering the responses to the recent consultation and discussing the officers’ recommendations with them before it formulates its conclusions for the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.”

Independent councillor Helen Dyke, chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, said: “I have decided to hold a special meeting of the committee, solely to consider the latest round of proposals on site allocations for Gypsies, Travellers and travelling Showpeople. Anyone with an interest can come along and hear our debate.”

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee will meet at 6pm on Monday, January 30, in Stourport Civic Hall.
The LDF panel meets on Monday, January, 16 to consider the consultation responses and officers’ recommendations. This panel never meets in public.

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee’s recommendations will be considered by the cabinet at 6pm on Tuesday, January 31 in Stourport Civic Hall. It will make the decision on what further consultation is undertaken.