Gloucestershire County Council may hand over Traveller sites

SHIRE Hall could soon transfer responsibility for Traveller and Gypsy sites across Gloucestershire to a housing association after admitting it cannot afford to run them.

The county council is going to hand four sites to new owners after a report stated they were no longer part of the council's "core business".

 

It currently costs £100,000 of taxpayers' money to maintain them.

The sites set to go are Showborough, near Twyning, with 10 plots; Culkerton, near Tetbury, which has four plots; the Willows in Sandhurst Lane, Gloucester, with 46 plots and Cursey Lane in Elmstone Hardwicke with 19 plots.

The council plans to hand them over to a housing association.

The sites are currently all full, with a long waiting list, such is the demand from the travelling community to come to Gloucestershire.

A council report, which is due to be debated on Thursday at Shire Hall, reveals the authority has failed in getting new Government grants to relieve some of the pressure on its budget for maintenance of the sites.

It states: "We are unable to access affordable homes programme grants to fund the maintenance of the sites, and in the light of challenging budget pressures there is a need to explore alternatives for good quality, financially sustainable provision for the residents." A total of 72 questionnaires have been handed to Travellers on the plots about the change, and 95 per cent of them said they did not want the sites handed to private owners.

Bosses at Shire Hall are finalising plans for one unnamed social landlord to run them all instead, a move which was widely accepted.

Councillor Mark Williams (Con, Sandhurst), said: "The Willows site is not as bad as it used to be, it is well run and the ethos is 'behave, or you are out. If the council cannot afford to run them anymore, the best option would be to give them to a housing association, not a private owner."

But the travelling community remained cautious about the move. A spokesman for the National Federation of Gypsy Liaison Groups said: "A responsible housing association would likely do a good job, but local authorities have years of expertise in this area already."
T
he report will be discussed by the environment scrutiny at 10am. The county council's Conservative cabinet will make a decision on Wednesday, February 1.