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Council will provide more traveller sites (From Echo)
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Council will provide more traveller sites
1:50pm Wednesday 15th April 2009
BASILDON Council leader Malcolm Buckley has admitted the district will eventually have to provide more traveller pitches.
The council is currently resisting Government recommendations for it to identify land for 62 more legal pitches by 2011, on top of the 106 already in the district.
As part of an ongoing public consultation it argues neighbouring authorities with few or no pitches should provide more.
Mr Buckley says the authority will even take legal action if it is forced to provide the 62 pitches.
However, he has conceded to the Echo there will come a time when Basildon will need to provide a small amount of new pitches to cater for “natural growth” among the traveller community.
He said: “As part of planning for new housing provision, we also have to take into account future gipsy and traveller site provision.
“There are of course many families in the district living on legal sites and there will come a time when we will have to provide more provision to allow for natural growth.”
Mr Buckley said the admission did not mean there was any chance of either of the controversial illegal sites at Dale Farm, Crays Hill, or Hovefields, Wickford, being allowed to stay put.
He said: “This is nothing to do with illegal sites. These have been through the full planning process and been found to be inappropriate development.
“When we are able to, they will be cleared.”
He said the council would be prepared to compromise if the level of site provision required by the Government was significantly reduced.
But Mr Buckley would not say by how much amount would need to fall for this to happen.
He added: “It would need to drop considerably, with other districts making up the numbers.”
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Your Say YourEcho
Nebs, Westcliff-on-Sea says...
3:35pm Wed 15 Apr 09
deadjim, essex says...
3:41pm Wed 15 Apr 09
The final public consultation period ends at 5 pm on 22nd May.The address to write to is Regional Planning Team,Go-East,Eastbro
ok,Shaftesbury Road,Cambridge,CB2 8DF.
You can e-mail comments to gtproposedchanges@go
east.gsi.gov.uk or there's an online option for responses at http://goe-consult.l
imehouse.co.uk/porta
l
Fupo, Wickford says...
8:53pm Wed 15 Apr 09
EnglishPatriot, Essex/Kent says...
9:28pm Wed 15 Apr 09
deadjim wrote:Been there, done all this. Written my objections in a knowledgeable way, being that I have been a neighbour to the monstrosity at Crays Hill. Trouble is, you tell the truth and they call you a racist!
What's very important is that as many Basildon people as possible write to Go-East and say that 62 more pitches is unacceptable when neighbouring districts will only have to provide 15 each.
The final public consultation period ends at 5 pm on 22nd May.The address to write to is Regional Planning Team,Go-East,Eastbro
ok,Shaftesbury Road,Cambridge,CB2 8DF.
You can e-mail comments to gtproposedchanges@go
east.gsi.gov.uk or there's an online option for responses at http://goe-consult.l
imehouse.co.uk/porta
l
Let's face it, while ever this government is still in power and the politically correct brigade still holding sway, we don't stand a cat in hell's of getting justice.
Let's concentrate on getting this lot out first - deal with the real traitors at Westminster.
It all begins and ends at the ballot box and if people can't be @rsed to go out and vote on election days and yes I mean local elections as well - then they have no right to moan.
We need to shut these idiots up every time they open their mealy mouths.
midnight warrior, wickford says...
12:10am Thu 16 Apr 09
Ironman, billericay says...
10:49am Thu 16 Apr 09
Come on everybody, it's the one slim and only chance of putting our point of view.
Send the site to all yr contacts requesting their involvement. Let them see the strength of feeling in the community.
Why should Basildon get more than it's fair share.
If we don't do it now, there's no saying if it will ever end.
Remember Wolfie: 'Power to the people'
We must get organised, no one else will/can do it for us.
deadjim, essex says...
12:39pm Thu 16 Apr 09
Two years ago, the regional assembly were proposing 157 new pitches for Basildon and nil for it’s neighbours.
By the start of the 4-day Examination in Public at Letchworth last October those numbers had been changed to 81 for Basildon and a minimum of 15 for other districts.
As a result of many ordinary people and the council making representations, the Letchworth hearings resulted in a reduction to 71 for Basildon.
Now, the Secretary of State is proposing the Basildon allocation should be 62, recognising that the original proposals were arbitrary and unsustainable. Local people have had an influence so there are grounds for optimism that further reductions can be achieved .
Malcolm Buckley is being realistic – some further sites will eventually have to be provided in Basildon but the planned distribution of new pitches must be more widespread.
A modest increase above the planned allocation of 15 pitches for five of the districts closest to Basildon – Brentwood, Maldon, Rochford, Southend and Castle Point would make Basildon’s allocation more realistic.
(Chelmsford’s proposed new allocation is 46 and Thurrock’s 44)
Winston Smith, Airstrip One. Oceania. says...
3:42pm Thu 16 Apr 09
I disagree. People should be writing and pointing out that there is no need for any new pitches anywhere in England for these freeloaders, because they all have permanent homes elsewhere.
Whether the pitches are in Basildon, Southend, Thurrock or wherever, these people will still be a burden on the taxpayer. Reducing the amount of pitches in Basildon and increasing them elsewhere does not solve the problem, it just shunts it somewhere else.
They should all be thoroughly investigated by the Inland Revenue for tax evasion, their assets should also be thoroughly investigated. Those found to have permanent homes should be forcibly removed from England and denied permission to return. Their assets (mobile homes, caravans, cars, vans, trucks etc.) should be seized in reparation for the years of benefits they have sponged.
They are a blight on the English taxpayer they are a blight on legal homeowners, they are a blight on the greenbel., They are not wanted here, they are not welcome here and they should be removed from England at the earliest opportunity.
Thankfully the days of Nu-Liebour's appeasement for such groups are getting shorter and pretty soon we will have a government that will no longer pussyfoot around with them.
thelonewhinger, benfleet says...
1:55pm Sat 18 Apr 09
In my view precious little notice is taken of such window dressing exercises and the real decisions are made long before they ever reach this stage.
Deadjim's suggestion that residents of Basildon lobby for a reduction in proposed sites is all very well - for residents of Basildon but this will simply compound the situation elsewhere.
What we should be doing is questioning why, in 21st Century
Britain, do we tolerate a minority group whose outdated traditions and arguable ethnicity allow them special dispensation under the law. No other "ethnic" group is given this, so what makes G/T's any different? It should surely be a simple matter of equality?
thelonewhinger, benfleet says...
3:15pm Mon 20 Apr 09
The mantra that these are poor homeless families and putting yet another pregnant woman up as spokesperson just will not wash anymore.
To organise, fund and construct such a large development in the space of just one Easter weekend must surely indicate to those muppets at Westminster that we are dealing with a major criminal organisation which must be quashed and quickly....
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Ironman, billericay says...
3:05pm Wed 15 Apr 09
We don't want anymore freeloaders. But what can we do.
What do we have to do before someone listens. The public (anywhere) does not want any of these itinerant outlaws as neighbours!