Gypsy sites set for government-funded revamp - Warwikshire

From the Coventry Observer

TRAVELLER site Woodside Park has been earmarked for an expansion which will see it become financially self-sufficient.

Rugby Borough Council has applied to itself for permission to create six new caravan pitches as well as new amenities, which will generate an extra £18,070 in rent.

It is estimated it will move the site's annual cost to the council of £13,920 into a small surplus of £4,150 to be used for future repairs and maintenance at the site on Oxford Road in Ryton-on-Dunsmore.

The total cost of the expansion will be met with a £918,000 grant from the Homes and Communities Agency.

A similar site on Siskin Drive near Toll Bar is also to be refubished by the city council using £1million from the same agency.

Meanwhile, the legal status of Woodside Park has been clarified after we reported last year how during an appeal over another site revealed its use as a private Gypsy caravan site should have ceased in 1998.

The report, while stating closing the park would be illogical, noted the council failed to add a landscaped embankment by June 1998 as required, and there was no Lawful Development Certificate for the use of the land.

A council spokesman said: “The findings of the appeal have created uncertainty about the planning status of Woodside Park, but not about the lawfulness of the site.

“As Woodside Park has been developed and used for residential accommodation for a continued period of more than ten years, it has become lawful through the passage of time.

“As part of the planning permission which granted the use of the site as a Gypsy and Traveller site in January 1998, it was required through a condition imposed on this permission that a bund (landscaped embankment) was created between the site and Ryton Wood before June 1998.

“This was not created prior to June 1998, but was created as part of the council’s redevelopment of the site, planning permission for which was granted in 2007.

“The land to which this current application relates has not been developed or used for residential accommodation, and while it formed part of the 2007 planning application for the redevelopment of the site, it was considered – given the findings of the appeal – that it was incumbent upon the council to remove all uncertainty about the planning status of this section of land and to submit the current application.”