Burn villagers pledge to fight plans for Travellers’ site - Yorkshire

From the Press

CAMPAIGNERS against a new Travellers’ site near Selby held a public meeting to explain their views to the public.

Burn Against New Site (BANS) hosted the event in Selby Town Hall yesterday to inform people of their objection to the creation of 15 new pitches at Burn Airfield.

Local resident Kay Enion, who attended the meeting, feared the camp, which would effectively double the size of the 12-pitch site already on the airfield, could effectively become “a ghetto”.

She said: “When the first site was opened we had two shops, they’ve both closed. We’ve no school and nothing for people to do.

“The main problem is we have had such a good relationship with the present groups, and they don’t want them. We’re frightened they will move away and we will get a lot of itinerant groups in and out.”

Last week, Inspector Richard Abbott, of Selby Police, said the plans did not comply with Government outlines, which state larger sites should not be considered unless they are preferred by the local Gypsy or Traveller community.

He said: “There would be in total 27 Traveller pitches located in one small area of the airfield site. The proposed site, in reality, is an extension of the existing Traveller site. Both sites would be located immediately next to each other, albeit separated by an airfield access road.”

In a report from the police, it revealed that the current chair of the Gypsy Council had told police “tensions can arise on Traveller sites when additional pitches are added”, and said the plans would not comply with the National Planning Policy Framework.

Burn resident Paul Lush said: “All residents, including most of the existing Gypsy and Traveller site, don’t want this development to take place, because of the scale of the development.

“I stress that. We all know and work along with the existing Traveller site and a lot of them have moved to smaller sites because they don’t like being on bigger ones, they don’t find them pleasant places to live.”

BANS have objected to Burn being disregarded from the orginal SADPD, but suddenly being selected by the council as the location for a new site, which could cost up to £940,000. The council recently told The Press it was under a legal obligation to provide new pitches, and listened to representatives from the community.

see also: The Selby Times - Villagers Gypsy site plans fight