'We're coming' warn Travellers - Kent

From the Paddock Wood Courier

MORE Travellers will pitch up in Paddock Wood unless councils provide space for them elsewhere, the Gypsy Council warned this week.

As Tunbridge Wells Borough Council confessed it had no idea how significant the demand was for Traveller sites, the official representative body for Gypsies said the matter would have to be dealt with urgently.

Gypsy Council secretary Joseph Jones said: "London has a big unmet need, there are nearly 100 sites there, all full, and as there are no plans to provide any more, the overflow of homeless Travellers will be coming to the surrounding areas.

"Gypsy communities grow faster as the families tend to have more children than the general population and, as they grow up, of course they will be looking for somewhere to live."

According to Dr Chris Hinde, a resident who has previously criticised lack of action against Gypsy camps, Paddock Wood suffers because of its location.

He said: "Both Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells borough councils don't seem to know what the other is doing, so we are getting little clusters either side of the boundary, which is now making up a community of caravans."

The issue looming over the town will be discussed by the borough council's planners on Monday when they decide on two applications for Traveller sites in Paddock Wood.

Proposals for two pitches in Pearsons Green Road, and another pitch on land near Five Furlongs in Queen Street, will be discussed by the eastern area planning committee.

Despite recommending they are approved, the planning department has asked a committee of councillors to look at them to see what impact they and similar applications could have on the area.

However, the report into both applications also revealed that due to changing policies, the council was not sure how much need there was for Traveller sites in the borough, and that it was a "work in progress".

Judging by biannual caravan counts, the council said it estimated just six homes – referred to as pitches – were needed in the entire borough.

A council spokeswoman told the Courier: "Pitch targets have not yet been set and are something we will be consulting on in due course."

Mr Jones added that the Gypsy Council was keen to take part in the council consultations on Traveller pitches.

Currently, the borough has just one official Traveller site, at Cinderhill in Matfield, with six pitches.

However, under the approved Core Strategy – a blueprint setting out plans for the borough until 2026 – there are plans to create more.

In May, Dr Hinde was one of a number of campaigners featured in the Courier after pledging to withhold council tax payments amid concerns that Travellers' sites were being built on nearby green belt land without planning permission. The group later backed down.

He said: "The council doesn't seem to see the global picture, what is necessary for Travellers and how they are going to do it.

"They have got to decide where they can stay.

"Also I keep hearing complaints that there seem to be two sets of laws developing, one for residents here and another for Travellers, and then authorities wonder why there is resentment building up."