Secretary of state calls in plans for new Datchet Travellers' site - Berkshire

From the Slough nad South Bucks Observer

CONTROVERSIAL plans for a new Travellers’ site have been called in by central government as the saga rumbles on.

Proposals to build a new Gypsy and Traveller site with 10 pitches on land at Datchet Common in Horton Road, have been hauled in by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) headed up by Eric Pickles.

The application caused outrage when it was passed by the Royal Borough in October, as the land is in the flood plain and Green Belt. Anger was fuelled when the council announced it would be putting forward £350,000 of funding to help build the site and entered a 99-year lease for the land at £30,000 a year.

The letter from the DLCG to the Royal Borough’s planning department, which has been leaked to The Observer, outlines the reasons for the application being called in. It includes its conformity with national policy on flooding and Green Belt, but also with planning policy for Traveller sites.

UKIP councillor Tom Bursnall said: “Clearly the secretary of state is questioning whether the Royal Borough can make sensible decisions when it comes to Traveller sites – I do not blame him.

“He has used his powers to call the application in so there is hope yet – UKIP will not stop fighting this until common sense prevails.”

Cllr Michael John Saunders, cabinet member for planning, said: “We always suspected an application of this importance might be called in, but we are reasonably confident in our robust planning process.

“The one regret that one might express is that it adds a period of time to the process which is regrettable, but it is the due process and we must cooperate.”

Cllr Bursnall will also ask Cllr David Coppinger, cabinet member for adult services which includes housing, at a full council meeting on December 10, if the money being spent on the site by the Royal Borough is a 'morally equitable way to spend hard working taxpayers money’.

In a series of emails between two leading councillors seen by The Observer, it was stated the land owner 'had no intent to develop it [the site] himself’ and the Datchet Common site was described as 'the only game in town’.

Cllr Coppinger has previously said the council had 'no choice’ but to spend the money.

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