£1.4m for updates to Travellers' site - Cambridgeshire

From the Royston weekly News

A Travellers' site will be refurbished and expanded, costing £1.4 million.

The project – confirmed after the Government agreed a £1.1 million grant – will add two pitches to the existing 14 at Whaddon, near Royston.

It will also allow for refurbishment of shower and toilet blocks that were built in the 1980s, and for installation of heating in utility buildings.

The grant was announced by South Cambs District Council, which is investing £300,000 in the scheme. It follows the collapse of its plans to reopen Mettle Hill Travellers’ site in nearby Meldreth after a public backlash.

Residents feared a return of the crime and vandalism which blighted the pitches before they were shut down in 1996. Cambridgeshire County Council has now agreed to sell the land to Meldreth Parish Council.

Cllr Mark Howell, cabinet member for housing, said the district council’s investment at Whaddon should be recouped in full from rental income.

He said: “It is good news we have secured the central government funding as without investment the site would start to deteriorate very quickly.

“We are proud that the sites we run work very well and making sure facilities are of the highest quality is important to the people living there as well as their neighbours.

“The worst result for all parties would be if the site was not invested in now as we might then face the prospect of it not being habitable in the future and we would need to find accommodation for families living at the site elsewhere in the district.”

The council previously secured £900,000 of Government cash to refurbish Blackwell Travellers’ site at Milton, and these works were completed last year.

A report to be considered by cabinet members on January 14 says plans to purchase Blackwell and Whaddon from the county council were on hold while Shire Hall chiefs reviewed their initial interest in selling the land.

The district council must find other plots to replace those which would have been located at Mettle Hill, with £500,000 of Government money available for that project.