Popular plan to redevelop Gypsy site is rejected - Devon

There will never be a Gypsy site again in a Mid Devon village if local people get their way, a councillor for the area says.

The comments made by Cllr Heather Bainbridge were criticised by other council members who felt she was stoking anti-Gypsy sentiment.

A plan to turn the site, next to the Grand Western Canal at Holcombe Rogus, into a house with a garage was turned down by planners at a meeting on Wednesday despite strong support for the proposal from villagers.

The site, known as Brookside, is designated for Gypsy and Traveller use, but is no longer owned by travellers and the agent supporting the application says there is “no intention whatsoever to use it for Gypsy and Traveller accommodation”.

But Mid Devon District Council planning officers were concerned the loss of eight pitches from the Gypsy and Traveller accommodation ‘stock’ in the district would lead to pressure for further new sites elsewhere.

Cllr Bainbridge claimed when the site was previously partially occupied by Gypsy residents, it had been an untidy and “sinister” place.

She said: “Originally it was a very quiet Gypsy site, they kept themselves to themselves, but it altered and became a rather sinister part of the canal, with lots of noise and dogs barking,”

The site is elevated above the canal, and the view into the site from the towpath is limited, but Cllr Bainbridge described how she had once gained access to the site and discovered how untidy it was. “I could have wept when I went in there. I saw the stream full of pieces of furniture and oil drums, which if it had been a local farmer I am sure he would have been prosecuted.”

She said that for most of the time it had been a Traveller site it had been “well run” but said latterly it was not.

“There will never be a Gypsy site again if the people of Holcombe Rogus get their way,” she concluded.

Council’s head of planning Jonathan Guscott reminded members it was up to the owners of the site who they sold it to.

“The fact this planning application does not seek to turn the area into a Gypsy site does not justify development in the open countryside,” he said.

Cllr Paul Williams said he did not want to see this application “swept in on a tide of bad feeling towards Gypsies”and he wanted members to determine the application purely on planning grounds.

Cllr Bainbridge said she was not being anti-Gypsy but she believed the residents of Holcombe Rogus had been “very much short changed by a very bad decision” to designate the site for such use in the first place.

Barry James, the applicant’s agent, said: “There is a strong amount of support for what is proposed, as demonstrated by more than 100 signatures of support in a village with a population of just over 500 people.”

Holcombe Rogus Parish Council and Tiverton and Honiton MP Neil Parish had also sent letters of support.

The council voted to refuse the application in line with officer’s recommendation.