Smithy Fen Travellers launch new bid to stay put after 'stupid' Fen Road decision - Cambridgeshire

From Cambridge News

Travellers living on unauthorised plots at Smithy Fen claim they should be allowed to stay for good after expansion of a site north of Cambridge was approved.

The Irish Traveller families from Cottenham said it was unfair that English Travellers living in Chesterton Fen Road had been given planning permission while they had not.

Councillors last week granted consent for 48 previously unauthorised plots in Fen Road, plus seven new ones, despite advice that it would damage the green belt and warnings that allowing any further expansion would set a dangerous precedent for places like Smithy Fen.

Jimmy O’Brien, 47, is among the Irish Travellers fighting a planning appeal at the moment over refusal of planning permission for six plots at Smithy Fen - five in Orchard Drive, and a sixth in Water Lane.

This application was rejected last year because of the cumulative impact of the countryside of more caravans.

But Mr O’Brien, of Water Lane, accused South Cambridgeshire District Council of discrimination, because most of the plots that have been given in planning permission in recent years have been for English Travellers.

He said: “What are we to think when we see English Travellers getting planning permission, retrospectively and on green belt land, when the council makes no provision for Irish Travellers and threatens to throw us out onto the road?

“These small patches of land are our homes. Why can’t we be allowed to live here peacefully?

“We have lived for years under the threat of homelessness. Rather than spending taxpayers money on planning enquiries, they could end the terrible stress and fear that we live with every day.”

The Fen Road application was described as a “gift horse” by Cllr Nick Wright, the council’s cabinet member for planning, because the application had not been opposed by the settled community.

Proposals to reopen Mettle Hill Travellers’ site in Meldreth provoked outrage among villagers last year.

But Cllr Sebastian Kindersley, the opposition leader, argued against approving the Fen Road extension because it could allow Travellers elsewhere to overcome the council’s ‘cumulative impact’ defence.

Last night he said the claims made by Smithy Fen Travellers indicated his fears were already being realised.

Cllr Kindersley said: “This decision has blown any kind of sensible and planned approach to Traveller development in South Cambridgeshire out of the water.

“It was a profoundly stupid decision that will have serious consequences.”

Cllr Wright said no precedent had been set.

He said: “We take a fair and balanced view of all planning applications and they are judged solely on their merits.

“The current application for six pitches at Smithy Fen has been refused by the council due to significant harm they would cause to the countryside and Government inspectors have previously agreed with our judgment.”