Neighbours worried at possible Throcking Travellers' site - Hertfordshire

From the Mercury

NEIGHBOURS are unhappy at plans for a Travellers’ site on a Throcking farm.

An application has been submitted for a pitch at Thirty Acre Farm, with a mobile home, touring caravan and hardstanding.

Cottered and Throcking parish councillor John Harwood-Bee said: “I have been contacted by a lot of very concerned residents of the village, and obviously the application is being looked into because some people are seriously concerned about the validity of the application.”

Ian Payne, who has lived on nearby Broadfield Hall farm for five years, said: “We don’t want it to turn into a Dale Farm where it gets bigger and bigger.

“If it gets given Traveller status then more and more people could move there – I don’t think there current regulations on these sites are enough.

“The rules seem to be shoehorned into planning rules for buildings, so a lot of it is unknown, and it means you’re living with a lot of uncertainty. It would also be a blight on the landscape because the area is very rural.”

The application, which has been put before East Herts Council, says the objective of the plans is: “To provide a stable base for the applicant as he gets older and is at risk of poorer health, but from which he can continue to live a travelling life. He is 70 years old and has recuperated from two minor operations.

“To develop a model of best practice in sustainable living, which draws on Romany traditions, including the keeping of horses.

“To enhance the appearance of the site within the landscape by replacing the existing run-down stables and container with a well designed new building in a less visually prominent location, screened by new native species screen and tree planting.”