Protesters to stage meetings against plans for Travellers' site - Somerset

From the Somerset Guardian

A new planning application has been submitted for a Gypsy and Traveller site in the green belt.

The application is for 12 permanent residential pitches with day rooms on the Old Colliery in Stanton Wick.

A group objecting to the plans will be organising two public exhibitions to galvanise opposition.

Stanton Wick Action Group (SWAG) was formed last year with the aim of stopping inappropriate development in the Chew Valley hamlet after the site was one of a number suggested by Bath and North East Somerset Council for Travellers.

The site was then taken off the authority's list of possible sites. Although a similar planning application was submitted last year, it was withdrawn before it could be determined.

Group chairman Clarke Osborne said many people were annoyed because they have had to submit their comments before the deadline on June 13 all over again.

He said: "This new application simply makes clear the reality of the overwhelming scale of this proposed development. As B&NES has decided to treat it as a completely new application, it is once again up to the community to make their views known. We need everyone's help to ensure that the message is again received loud and clear by B&NES and their officers: on planning grounds, this site is unsuitable, unsustainable and inappropriate."

The applicant's agent Simon Ruston explained that the council's removal of the site from its list was not relevant to this application because it is being submitted by a private individual rather than a public authority. He added that the site would see the redevelopment of a brownfield site rather than an untouched greenfield one. He said a detailed transport statement would address highways concerns.

The application has the support of Maggie Smith-Bendell, the chair of the UK Association of Gypsy Women, who has spent many years campaigning for the rights of the travelling community.

Somerset-based Mrs Smith-Bendell says the location, access and a historic shortfall in the provision of Gypsy and Traveller sites make it suitable.

The first exhibition will be held at Stanton Drew Village Hall on Monday from 5.30pm where SWAG members will be available. This will be followed by a public meeting at the same venue hosted by Stanton Drew Parish Council at 7.30pm, which is open to everyone including residents from surrounding villages. There will also be another exhibition held at Pensford Memorial Hall on Saturday, June 8 from 4-7pm.