Selby Council reacts to unexpected rejection of Burn Travellers' plan - Yorkshire

From the Selby Online

Selby District Council has responded following the unexpected decision of its own planning committee to reject plans for a Travellers site at Burn.

The Council had planned to use part of Burn Airfield to provide fifteen new permanent pitches for use by the gypsy and Travellers’ community. But plans were rejected seven votes to four after a lengthy meeting of the district’s planning committee on Wednesday night.

The site had been championed by the Council’s ruling Conservative administration in response to its legal obligations to provide accommodation for as many as 33 new pitches for the period leading up to 2028. A recent review of Travellers' needs in the area insists that up to 19 pitches would be required between now and 2018.

But the plans were met with fierce opposition from residents of the local area, including a number of residents of a nearby Travellers site already established in the village. They claimed the Council was determined to ‘hammer on through’ with its plans despite the massive local opposition.

The statement published on the Council’s website this morning reads:

‘At its meeting on the 9th October Selby District Council Planning Committee voted that the planning application for change of use of part of Burn Airfield to facilitate a gypsy / Traveller site be REJECTED.

‘The planning process is a transparent and democratic process that allows the views of consultees and members of the public to be taken into consideration by the local planning authority. It is the Planning Committee's role to act independently and weigh up all the evidence for and against an application before making a decision.

‘During the public consultation process comments were received from 37 consultees and over 100 objections were registered.

‘Clearly the Planning Committee has listened to concerns of residents and the significant local opinion against this application. However the council has a statutory obligation to provide pitches for the travelling community in accordance with the recent Traveller needs assessment which identified the need for 33 pitches up to 2028. The council will now need to consider the wider implications of this Planning Committee decision before deciding the way forward.

‘Should it decide to do so, the council (as the applicant) has 6 months in which to lodge an appeal against the decision.’

A decision by the Council’s ruling executive to appeal the decision of its own planning committee’s elected members is likely to leave the authority open to claims of anti-democratic behaviour. This move, one source told Selby Online, would be ‘pretty unlikely given the circumstances’.

Potentially, the Council could now return to a number of alternative sites in the area it had reportedly shortlisted as far back as 2010. According to a media leak at that time, sites in Carlton, Eggborough, Kelfield, Osgodby, Bondgate (a disused refuse tip), Church Fenton Airfield and leafy Wistow had all been considered as potentially viable sites.