Council still on hunt for Gypsy site as plans go in - Derbyshire

From the Ashbourne News Telegraph

CONSULTATION on plans for a Traveller site at Homesford has begun, despite Derbyshire Dales District Council still searching for an appropriate site for a Gypsy family.

Councillors identified the former woodyard at Homesford as the only viable option out of 11 sites at a meeting in January.

Now, formal consultation on the suitability of the woodyard as a site for a Traveller family will begin at a public meeting on Wednesday, March 27 at 7pm at Wirksworth Leisure Centre.

Residents and businesses have been invited to the meeting along with the parish council and neighbourhing Amber Valley Borough Council.

The drive to find a site for the Gypsy family has been an on-going concern for the district council since before October last year, when the News Telegraph revealed plans had been submitted for a Traveller’s site on land adjacent to Ashbourne Cemetery and the allotments on Watery Lane.

Protests and a refusal to lift a covenant on the site by former owners Nestle scuppered plans for the Traveller site and subsequent moves by Derbyshire County Council to pull potential sites from the consultation process left district councillors little option but to put the Homesford site forward for consultation.

However, members of the corporate committee which met in January, admitted the woodyard was not necessarily ideal for the Traveller family and council officers are still on the hunt for a more appropriate location. A district council spokesman said: “While the choice of Homesford was not unanimously popular among members at the meeting in January, we must reiterate the district council’s legal obligation to identify a site for the Traveller family in question. Members fully understand that the legal duty to offer suitable accommodation is absolute and cannot be discharged unless a suitable offer of accommodation is made.”

Plans for a temporary site for the family at Rowsley will be considered on Thursday, March 21.