Potential Hambleton Traveller sites to be assessed - Yorkshire

From the Northern Echo

A SURVEY of four potential Traveller sites across Hambleton is to get underway to test suitability in an effort to meet growing needs.

At a Hambleton District Council cabinet meeting today (Tuesday, July 16) members voted in favour of the report’s recommendations to hold pre-planning application discussions for private landowner sites at Bankside Close, Sowerby; Tame Bridge, Stokesley; land adjacent to Ponderosa caravan park, Sutton-on-the-Forest; and World’s End, Sowerby.

In a report to the cabinet councillor Brian Phillips said there were no known vacant plots in the district and no current planning permissions outstanding.

There is also no council or public land available for developing new pitches – which prompted the call for private sites earlier this year.

He said: “We are currently in a position where if Travellers move onto a field we have nowhere for them to be moved to.

“If appeals are then made by them to stay we will be in a very weak position.”

Coun Bridget Fortune said residents of Stokesley and surrounding areas felt they had more than their fair share of Traveller sites.

“When we talk about setting up a residential Traveller site we should remember they are exempt, like the rest of us, from using green belt land,” she said.

“It is unpopular with people who would love to build a cheap chalet in open countryside but are not allowed to.”

Coun Ron Kirk added: “The current site in Stokesley was unauthorised at first but had to be approved. Stokesley seems to be the settlement area for Travellers.”

Leader of Hambleton District Council Mark Robson assured councillors it did not mean sites would definitely be permitted in those areas.

He said: “It may materialise some are not suitable sites but this is just allowing officers to investigate further.”