Councillor has Gypsy site fears - Worcestershire

From the Matlock Gazette

GYPSY sites across the Malvern Hills district could spread unless the council speeds up its policy in the issue, a leading councillor has warned.

The district council is this month starting to create a development plan document (DPD) to set out how many sites and pitches will be needed for gipsies, travellers and travelling showpeople in south Worcestershire.

The plan is being prepared jointly by Malvern Hills District Council, Wychavon District Council and Worcester City Council.

But Councillor Tom Wells, whose Powick ward already has a number of traveller sites, says he is alarmed the policy will not be adopted until 2016.

Speaking at a meeting of Malvern Hills District Council, he said: “I fear that we’ll get into the same situation with this that we have got into with planning, where developers are taking advantage of the fact we haven’t got a five-year supply of housing earmarked to get their planning applications pushed through.

“It is vital that the council acts quickly to assess the genuine local need for travellers’ accomodation and, if such a need exists, identifies suitable sites as a matter of urgency.

“Until it does, I fear government planning inspectors may well feel obliged to approve applications on thoroughly unsuitable sites.”

He also said that people living near such sites might struggle to understand why it will take nearly three years to address the issue, and said the council should do all it could to speed up the process, even if it means going it alone from the other councils.

But Gary Williams, the council’s head of planning, economy and housing, said that if the council tried to formulate its own policy, it runs the risk of being found unsound by the independent inspector who will be judging it.

But he said the council will take the lead in driving forward the document’s timetable.

The timetable currently shows an initial consultation period running from January to October next year, publication in May or June 2015, and submission in August 2015.

It is due to be examined by an inspector in November 2015, with the inspector’s report being published in March 2016.