Object

Gypsy and Traveller Site Options

Representation ID: 55544

Received: 29/07/2013

Respondent: Richard Ellison

Representation Summary:

WDC has already decided this is not a suitable site and as spent money defending this position. It is therefore illogical to include it as a site option. The reasons this site is not suitable include:
-substantial harm to the green belt
-damage to the character of the area
-inability to landscape the site
-lack of very special circumstances
-impact on the settled community
The government have recently emphasised the need to proect green belt. This site should therefore be removed from the options

Full text:

I am emailing in response to the Options for Consultation document published as part of the ongoing Local Plan process. Specifically to object in the strongest possible terms to the inclusion of Kites Nest Lane, Beausale (GT13) as an Option.

WDC has already decided twice - in response to applications for planning permission from various of the site occupants - that KNL is not a potential site. A great deal of time and council taxpayers' money has been spent over the past 3+ years in upholding that decision, based as it was on KNL being in the Green Belt and for all the reasons set out so clearly in the 2011 Public Inquiry Appeal decision. The suggestion now that KNL might be an Option is uterly illogical and flies in the face of everything that has gone before.

I do not propose to repeat all the given reasons. They include the substantial and ongoing harm to the GB caused by the unauthorised development to date; damage to the character and appearance of the attractive local countryside; the inability to landscape the site; the lack of any very special circumstances evidenced by the occupants; and domination of the local settled community.

I have seen the Government's recent pronouncements reiterating the need to protect the GB, and am sure that WDC will have due regard to them. The Options clearly envisage that G&T sites can be provided by WDC in non GB land. KNL should therefore be removed as a possible Option without any further delay.