Borough Green Gypsies could be on the move next week - Kent

From the Malling Chronicle

GYPSIES may be on the move as early as next week under a new plan to resite them ten miles away.

The Travellers, based in St Mary's Platt, on the outskirts of Borough Green, are being relocated to purpose-built pitches in Aylesford.

The site, owned by Kent County Council (KCC), in Coldharbour Lane, has just won planning permission from Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council (TMBC) to extend and provide permanent pitches for 26 families.

It comes as permission for the Doran family-of-eight to stay on land north east of Askew Bridge on the A25 at St Mary's Platt, runs out.

Thomas and Margaret Doran and their six children, living in a mobile home and a touring caravan, were granted two years to live there by TMBC in April 2010.

The news that the Platt Gypsy site was closing down has been welcomed by parish council members and representatives of the family.

TMBC councillor David Evans, who lives in Greenlands, Platt, said: "This new site is more suitable.

"The Platt site is not fit for human habitation – there's so much noise from the road and rail line."

Harry Rayner, chairman of nearby Wrotham Parish Council, said: "This new site gives travellers somewhere secure to go, so they can move there and stay as long as they like without risk of being evicted.

"This is a bold step from KCC and TMBC."

The Aylesford planning application is for 18 new caravan pitches added to the existing eight, which will be built around a new road.

Developers will also be allowed to build two semi-detached utility blocks, a children's play area, a three metre-high acoustic barrier next to the A20 London Road and amenity lighting, and to resurface the existing access road.

The planning agent for the Platt Gypsies, said: "This new site at Aylesford is very important.

"New planning laws have made it impossible for Travellers to be travellers – they have nowhere to go.

"Even if they own a piece of land they can't put their caravans on it without planning permission.

"They need to be on a site to get to know local people so they can get planning permission approved and this leaves them with no option but to find a house.

"It effectively outlaws Travellers and sites like this new one in Aylesford are the only solution."

Will Cash, Tommy Doran's brother, who often stays with the family on the site, said: "In the short term, sites like Aylesford are good – they give us somewhere to stay legally."

He added he wanted to buy his own piece of land and hopes the council site would not hold him back.

Lindsay Pearson for TMBC said: "We are fully committed to providing pitches at Coldharbour Lane and identifying a five-year supply of readily available sites."