Peterborough needs up to six traveller Transit sites

PETERBOROUGH could need up to six transit sites across the city to cope with the number of Travellers.

Peterborough City Council has said it needs to provide a temporary site where travellers would be able to camp legally for up to a month before they move on elsewhere.

But councillors on a cross-party group, which was set up by the council to discuss and find a suitable location for a site, have revealed that the city will need more than one of these sites.

While a figure or the locations for the sites have not yet been agreed, councillors believe they need between four and six sites so that no single city community is adversely affected by having one large site on their doorstep and there is room for more than one group of travellers to stay.

Councillor John Fox, an independent councillor, is the chairman of the cross-party group.

He said: “I think we need four but it could be six.

“We are talking about a piece of land where you can move the Travellers and charge them rent so they pay their way and pay for cleaning and the provision of portable toilets.

“We need more than one so we have options to alternate them around when more than one group is in the city.”

A Freedom of Information request recently revealed that the council paid out £25,000 in the last financial year cleaning up after Travellers’ makeshift camps.

In 2009/10 they spent £18,870, in 2008/09 the figure was £30,340 and during 2007/08 £21,830 was spent.

The council’s housing strategy for 2011 to 2015 identified a need for a transit site and said it would safeguard a patch of land next to Norwood Lane permanent traveller site, in Paston, to be used as a potential transit site.

On Friday, Travellers set up camp on private land at Coca Cola Enterprises’ in Morley Way, Woodston.

Meanwhile, a group has been camped on the corner of Saxby Gardens and Belvoir Way, in the Welland Estate, Dogsthorpe, for almost two months.

It has caused increasing tensions between residents – who say they are concerned about the illegal encampment – and the travellers.

Dogsthorpe Ward Cllr Adrian Miners said: “They have been there for nearly two months and it is beyond a joke. If they were in some other area they would have been moved on in about a week.

“We had a recent neighbourhood meeting and it was raised then. The officer said the city needs about six sites for Travellers.

“It is more urgent than ever to find those six sites.

“That area of Peterborough has its fair share of travellers, we are between two official traveller sites and we don’t want another next to that.

“I am a great supporter of transit sites but we have got to resolve this issue quickly.”

Cllr Miners added that he intends to bring the issue up at the full council meeting on Wednesday night.

Fellow Dogsthorpe Ward Cllr Bella Saltmarsh agreed that there was a need for more than one transit site.

She said: “The general feeling is we need some of these transit sites but there would only be enough room for about three or four caravans so we would certainly need more than one.

“We need to try and find a few places for these transit sites but where to put them is the 64 million dollar question.

“I think they should definitely be on the outskirts of the city and they should not be in areas of dense population.