Llangan Action website launched to fight plans for permanent Gypsy camp in Vale of Glamorgan

CAMPAIGNERS fighting plans to site a permanent Gypsy camp in a small Vale of Glamorgan village have set up a website to promote their cause.

Llangan, just outside Cowbridge, has been identified in Vale of Glamorgan Council’s local development plan (LDP) as the site of a 21-pitch Gypsy camp.
llangan

A six-week period of public consultation has started, during which time residents will have the chance to put their objections before a final decision is taken.

Residents in Llangan have bow begun a leaflet campaign in surrounding villages and have also set up their own website at llanganaction.com.

The campaigners are following in the footsteps of the Vale Says No campaign group which set up a website to fight plans for gas drilling at Llandow Industrial Estate.

Llandow residents are hoping to meet the anti-drilling campaigners to learn from their success.

The Llangan website sets out the detailed objections to the plan.

The search for a permanent site in the Vale of Glamorgan for travellers has caused controversy for several months.

One favoured site was thought to be the former recycling centre at Sully.

Although this has not been identified as an official site, Gypsies moved onto the land last month, provoking concern and anger among residents who have called for legal action to remove them.

A family of Gypsies has been living in Llangan for several years, despite various legal attempts to remove them.

Residents say the village is an inappropriate location for a permanent site for a larger number of travellers.

Local woman Helen Hammond said that, now the consultation on the LDP had begun, campaigners had stepped up their campaign delivering leaflets in the area and setting up the website.

“We are not against Gypsy Travellers, but we feel the LDP proposals do not meet local or national criteria for development in rural locations,” said Ms Hammond.

“As our website sets out, the proposals do not meet the criteria such as a preference for single family sites, close to health services and shops that Gypsy and Travellers themselves identify in the Vale of Glamorgan report prepared by Fordham Research in 2008.

“In a village of only 35 houses, a development of six residential and 15 transit pitches, each including two caravans, car parking, day room and facilities, is totally disproportionate and will nearly double the size of the village, impacting on local infrastructure, including the local primary school.”

Vale of Glamorgan Council’s consultation is due to complete next month.