Gypsy site search is back to square one - Staffordshire

From the Sentinel

THE search for a permanent Gypsy site in Stoke-on-Trent is starting again – as a £1 million grant to set up the camp has been returned to the Government.

The news has been welcomed by campaigners in Longton who feared the camp would be set up near their homes and next to a high school.

The Goms Mill land was one of the preferred sites from a list of 44 potential locations identified by Stoke-on-Trent City Council.

But The Sentinel has learnt the whole process is now being reviewed as planners return to square one.

The authority has a statutory obligation to provide land where Gypsies can permanently live and received a £1 million Government grant to pay for the development.

It instructed Hanley charity Brighter Futures to help identify a site.

But chief executive Gill Brown said today: "The council has said it won't be bringing any sites forward at this time. They want to review their needs assessment. Our work has now finished.

"We had to have it finished by March 2015 so when the council said it had changed its mind we had to return the £1 million."

More than 850 residents signed a petition against putting the camp on the land next to Longton's St Thomas More Catholic College.

Campaigner Maureen Deaville, aged 71, whose Astro Grove home adjoins the land, said: "It's encouraging that the council appears to have backtracked but we will be watching very closely and will continue our fight."

Eighty-nine parents at the school also objected to the plan in a separate poll – with six saying they would remove their children.

College business manager Jenny Doig said: "The majority of opposed comments were concerned about the location of the site next to a school."

Stoke-on-Trent South MP Rob Flello had planned to present the petition to Parliament.

He said: "It's very disappointing. It looks to me as though council officers have used every trick in the book to whittle down a list of 44 possible sites to actually none of those sites, then come up with the Longton site."

The council already owns the Linehouses Gypsy site, in Goldenhill, which has 33 permanent pitches, six transit pitches, and room for 12 caravans.

Tony Oakman, the council's director of adult and neighbourhood services, said: "The council has an obligation to deliver new traveller sites to meet identified local needs and, subject to this analysis, has been looking at potential sites.

"The process of exploration is ongoing and no decisions have been made, but we are revisiting the evidence across the board."

Asked about the return of the £1 million, Mr Oakman added: "We are determined to ensure that the decision-making process represents the needs and views of the whole community, and value for money for the taxpayer. We cannot rush this process and we want to ensure we get it right."