From Newbury Today
IT’S CRUNCH time tonight (Wednesday) for plans to build a Travellers’ site in the middle of the local Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).
Some residents fear “another Dale Farm” – a reference to the illegal Essex site which housed around 1,000 Travellers until it was finally closed amid violence and arrests following a decade-long legal battle.
But West Berkshire planners have recommended granting permission to applicant Boysie Biddle for the site in Beenham.
However, due to a huge number of formal objections – more than 130 – the matter has automatically been sent to the eastern area planning committee, which sits tonight and where councillors will decide its fate.
The application seeks permission for the stationing of caravans for residential purposes for “one Gypsy pitch together with the formation of additional hard standing and utility / dayroom ancillary to that land” adjacent the Olde Forge House in Bath Road.
It was submitted by agent Green Planning Solutions, which is run by former Liberal Democrat MP Matthew Green, whose website boasts: “We CAN get you planning permission….we can help you to take full advantage of the presumption in favour of sustainable development and the absence of comprehensive local planning policies in many Local Authorities.
“Specialising in gaining planning permission in areas of development constraint such as the countryside, green belt and AONBs.”
see also: the Newbury and Thatcham Chronicle - Traveller pitch plan warning
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.