Tytherington Road Nursery could be turned into Travellers' site - Gloucestershire

The Gazette

TRAVELLERS could take over a nursery to the south of Thornbury after a family asked for permission to turn the four-acre site into 14 caravan pitches.

Plans to set up 12 Gypsy caravan and two transit pitches at Tytherington Road Nursery have been submitted for approval to South Gloucestershire Council, sparking fears among those living on the edge of the field.

As well as pitches, the 4.04 acre land would also accommodate two toilet blocks, a horticultural shed and six utility or day rooms.

A Thornbury resident, who asked not to be named, told the Gazette allowing the nursery to become a Travellers' site would have disastrous consequences.

"The site overlooks properties," he said. "This is big news if it was to go ahead; God forbid. It's on the way into Thornbury from Tytherington and it's quite a lot of pitches.

"There is no proper drainage; there is nothing. Property value would go from loads to nothing."

A Tytherington villager added: "They want to build a Gypsy site and it will decrease the value of my house. People need to know about the application."

Town and district Cllr Maggie Tyrrell reassured locals, explaining the council would thoroughly investigate the plans before either approving or rejecting them.

"Please don't rush to judgement," she said. "This will go through the normal planning process and will be thoroughly investigated.

"I can quite understand why people are anxious. We have sadly some bad sites. With any community there are good things and bad things and if we look at the site on the A38 in Almondsbury it is always immaculate."

Cllr Howard Gawler, who represents the Tytherington area, urged locals not to panic at this early stage.

"Don't panic yet," he said. "Let's look at it all and work on it thereafter." But he said the scheme was much larger than he was led to believe two months ago.

"It is more pitches than what I was originally led to believe," he added. "It was six pitches for one family. It does seem a bit large for that now and it's far larger than anything in South Gloucestershire at the moment in terms of a private site."

Sally Woodbury, representing the developers, explained that the application was for six families in one extended family, but each would have two pitches; one for a mobile home and another for a touring caravan.

"I understand the negativity," she said. "The only side of the Traveller community people see is the negative side.

"It’s a fear of the unknown. This family actually come from the area and their grandparents were born there."

Tytherington Road Nursery went up for auction on March 5 this year. It failed to attract buyers at the time but was later sold around April time to the Travellers' group for £170,000.

Ms Woodbury said the family owned the land and existing business and would be intending to continue to run the nursery.

In May an application for 14 caravan pitches at Tanhouse Lane in Rangeworthy was approved on appeal despite being initially rejected by local councillors.