Old Windsor Travellers' site saga set to enter important week - Berkshire

From the Royal Borough Observer

A KEY week is approaching in a dispute over a Travellers' site in a village.

A public inquiry by the Planning Inspectorate is due to begin on Tuesday over a Travellers' site at land adjacent to Newtonside Orchard, in Burfield Road, Old Windsor.

An application to change the use of the land to allow the building of five Travellers' pitches by landowner Fred Sines was refused by the Royal Borough in August last year, but Mr Sines lodged an appeal.

Householders and Old Windsor parish and borough councillors are expected to speak against the appeal.

The public inquiry will decide whether or not to allow 'without planning permission, the material change of use of the land from scrubland to the siting of caravans, mobile homes, motorhomes and tents and the importation of hardcore, scalpings and other such materials to form access roads and other hardstanding areas.'

The inquiry, to be held at the Royal Windsor Racecourse, in Maidenhead Road, is expected to last until next Friday.

At the end of the inquiry, rather than making a written decision as is usual, the planning inspector Clive Kirkbride will prepare a report and recommendation to be presented to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles MP.

Mr Kirkbride will make a statement at the end of the inquiry about when a decision is likely to be published.

The issue has been running since January 2011 when an initial application to change the use of the land was submitted by Mr Sines.

Various applications since have either been refused or withdrawn by the applicant.

The Royal Borough has previously noted a need for more Travellers' sites to meet government obligations.