Campaigners face new battle to halt proposals for Travellers site - Somerset

From the Somerset Guardian

A major campaign to oppose a planning application for 12 pitches for Gypsy and Traveller use is about to be launched by Stanton Wick Action Group.

The new application registered by agents Ruston Planning on behalf of applicant Tom Smart has reopened old wounds in the village.

It includes associated works with 12 dayrooms and hardstanding on a former shale waste tip at the Old Colliery in Wick Lane, which had been removed from a Bath and North East Somerset Council consultation on Travellers' sites only four months ago.

The pitches on the 10.11 hectare (26 acre) site could mean 36 caravans, and as many as 90 people on the site. The nearest settlement of Stanton Wick has only 26 homes.

The action group is planning a series of exhibitions and workshops in villages that will be affected including Pensford, Stanton Drew and Chew Magna.

The campaign comes as parish councillors leaflet every home in the Stanton Drew parish, which includes Stanton Wick, to gauge public opinion on the application.

More than 90 residents turned up at a parish council meeting held last week to discuss the plans.

Parish clerk John Harvey said: "Once the questionnaire has been collected in, then councillors will look at the comments and formulate their views based on the forms."

Chairman of the Stanton Wick Action Group, Clarke Osborne, said: "This site has been proved to be unsustainable and contrary to all of the Government's guidelines on planning for traveller sites.

"As such, B&NES rejected this greenbelt site four months ago and there are no planning grounds for it to be considered for similar use again.

"We feel it is very important that local people are fully aware of the proposals and understand how they can make their views known to the planning authority."

The action group has also commissioned a report from a planning consultant which will shape its objections and it plans to make this available to the community and B&NES.

The agent has declined to comment.

see also: the Somerset Guardian - New battle to halt proposal for Travellers site in Stanton Wick