One thousand sign Cannon Hill Gypsy site petition - Dorset

MORE than 1,000 people have signed a petition against a proposed Travellers’ site in East Dorset in its first three days.

The Friends of Uddens Woodland are horrified at the thought of losing a popular walking spot at Cannon Hill to 25 Gypsy Traveller pitches and want Dorset County Council to think again.

The council has already obtained £1.75million in government funding for the project. The six-hectare plot off the A31 is one of 12 recently approved in a public consultation.

Friends chairman Mike Gorse, 65, said: “We are keeping going.

“We want the council to use the money for a Travellers’ site elsewhere and leave that woodland alone because there is nowhere else that people can use for recreation. Go back to the government and say: ‘Can we spend this money elsewhere?’ They couldn’t have dreamed of a worse place.”

Hundreds of people use the land, criss-crossed by the Castleman Trailway, for dog walking and horse riding.

“We are not anti-Gypsy,” Mr Gorse said.

“If the woodland was in danger we would be objecting if it was houses, straight homes or £1million mansions.”

In the winter the ground is damp and becomes ‘tinder dry’ in the summer, he says, and fire engines could struggle to get down the narrow lane.