Traveller site costs set for approval - Derbyshire

From the Matlock Mercury

Work could soon be starting on a Rowsley Traveller site as Derbyshire Dales District Council look set to release £7,425 of funding for the project.

At a meeting tonight (Thursday), councillors will vote on whether to approve the revised cost of building the site, which had originally been estimated at £5,250.

As planning permission for the site was granted in March, once the costs have been approved work will commence almost immediately.

Planning permission allows four caravans to park at land in Old Station Close for a period of nine months. The time limit starts from the date the family move on to the land.

Derbyshire Dales District Council have a legal duty to find the Traveller family a home, who have previously refused a bricks and mortar option because of their heritage.

Traders and residents in Rowsley have been adamantly opposed to the Traveller site from the very beginning. See the letters page for their response.

Derbyshire Dales District Council is also set to seek an independent valuation of a potential permanent site for the Travellers at Homesford.

A special meeting of the Corporate Committee will hear next Tuesday (July 23) the results of a detailed community consultation on the Homesford site, which remains the only feasible permanent solution so far identified by the Derbyshire Gypsy Liaison Group (DGLG).

Applying for planning permission is not likely to be recommended next week, and any future planning application would in any case require further public consultation.