Gypsy pitches approved for Ash railway site - Surrey

From Get Surrey

A NEW Gypsy site next to a railway line in Ash has been given approval.

Permission has been granted for a field next to Guildford Road to be used for four pitches, each with enough space for a day room, a touring caravan and a mobile home.

More than 130 letters of objection had been sent to Guildford Borough Council over the proposals. Concerns were raised by Ash Parish Council, Ash Residents' Association, Network Rail and South West Trains, but there was also a petition of support with 129 signatures.

A decision on the application had been previously postponed to allow time for planning committee members to visit the site due to concerns with its proximity with the railway line and flooding.

To mitigate against the noise created by trains, a condition was suggested to erect an acoustic fence along the boundary with the railway line, which must be built before any of the mobile homes are lived in.

Planning officer Tara Taylor recognised that the pitches would result in some harm to the openness of the countryside, but the project was recommended to be approved based on the unmet need for Gypsy sites within the borough.

At the planning committee meeting on Tuesday (May 21), council leader Stephen Mansbridge attempted to convince his fellow committee members to go against the planning officer’s recommendation to approve the site.

Cllr Mansbridge said the site would have a profound impact on the openness of the adjacent area and he also raised safety concerns.

“Whilst I accept the acoustic barrier will be a condition, I assert this is not a healthy environment in which to live,” Cllr Mansbridge said.

“We need to respect the Traveller community and a find better place for them to live than this.”

A majority of the committee went against his motion to refuse the application, and decided to approve the site.

Councillor Liz Hogger said: “I have looked at arguments of flooding and drainage. The Environment Agency have no problems. Our own engineers are saying there is no problem.

“I do not think we have any ground whatsoever on refusal on either of those concerns.

“The fact is for years this council has been in need for finding places for Gypsy and Traveller sites, and we have not been able to do so.

“When an application like this comes across from a private applicant, we have to look very carefully to see if it can help us meet the needs for Gypsy and Travellers in the area. I believe it does.

“I welcome the idea of the acoustic fence and having that overcomes new concerns about the noise of the trains and impact of the amenity of people living in the mobile homes.”

Following the meeting, the applicant, Alan Bath, who will be living on the site with his family, said he was "over the moon" with the result.

“The Travellers have been around in Ash for the last 200 years,” he said. “We are the locals. My dad, his dad, his dad’s dad all lived around Ash.

“This is going to be a site which the Ash residents and other people that travel past can look and think what a nice, clean and tidy and well landscaped and well looked-after site.”