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Row over plots for travelling showpeople (From Echo)
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Row over plots for travelling showpeople
9:00am Thursday 23rd April 2009
BASILDON could be forced to bear the brunt of new pitches for “travelling showpeople” in Essex...on top of 62 extra caravan plots for travellers.
It has emerged the county will have to find 103 caravan pitches by 2011 for travelling showpeople who run fairgrounds and circuses.
This is on top of about 430 pitches the county needs to find for gipsies and travellers, including 30 temporary plots.
Members of Basildon Council’s cabinet voted against creating 62 new traveller pitches because they already have 112, while some neighbours have none.
Yet they heard the district would also bear the brunt for new showmen’s quarters, despite having ten plots more than most in Essex.
The latest cabinet report said: “While the policy refers to all parts of the region providing additional plots, it makes clear those areas where there is strong presence of travelling showpeople yards should bear the brunt of new provision. As there is already a relatively high number of travelling showpeople plots in Basildon, inevitably it will be looked to provide a significant number of further plots.”
Councillors also voted against this regional policy, claiming other authorities must provide.
They described plans to overburden Basildon as “unacceptable, irrational and undeliverable”.
The meeting condemned the “flaws” in the way figures were calculated including a “fictional” local need based on the amount of unauthorised sites. They said the fact many of the travellers at Dale Farm, Crays Hill, came to Basildon from other sites in Hertfordshire and council homes in Wolverhampton, as revealed by the Echo in 2006, meant the need was exaggerated.
Tony Ball, the council’s deputy leader, said: “We accept the need to accommodate some growth on the authorised sites, but while we have planning law and the confidence of the majority of our residents on our side we will not accept unauthorised plots.”
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Your Say YourEcho
andy:), Southend says...
11:56am Thu 23 Apr 09
deadjim, essex says...
12:02pm Thu 23 Apr 09
The Report of the Planning Inspectorate Panel which followed the Examination in Public last October, was very critical of the Regional Assembly for failing to take a strategic view of the needs of Travelling Showpeople.
As a result, in making it’s recommendations, heavy reliance has had to be placed by the Panel on data provided almost exclusively by representatives of Travelling Showpeople .
However, the Report makes it very clear that in Essex ,70 % of the existing Travelling Showpeople families are in Thurrock and as a result,79 additional plots are needed, mostly in that district, where most of the calculated perceived immediate need arises from a single site of 62 plots that is subject to a temporary planning consent.
Nothing presented at the Examination in Public or contained in the Panel Report provides evidence of a functional need for a significant number of additional plots for Travelling Showpeople in Basildon rather than any other district in Essex.
The needs of Travelling Showpeople are different from other travellers since they do travel extensively and regularly. Access to the main road network is critical and this criteria could be satisfied by any district with good access to say the M25, M11,A12,A13,A120 or A127.
RJD_Wiz, Basildon says...
1:14pm Thu 23 Apr 09
-head' ??? Either way, thanks for the update.
deadjim, essex says...
1:41pm Thu 23 Apr 09
RJD_Wiz wrote:I've followed this v closely but the info is all on the Go-East website at http://www.goeast.go
Good Lord, deadjim !! Did you Google that or was all that 'Off-the-top-of-your -head' ??? Either way, thanks for the update.
v.uk/goeast/planning
/regional_planning/6
87221/.
Just click on the links.
thelonewhinger, benfleet says...
5:19pm Thu 23 Apr 09
How many and where is up for debate but there are still travelling fairs and circuses in the country so there is a genuine need (rather than a desire) for places for these groups to stop.
However whilst I accept the need I do not accept that this is something which must be provided and funded by the rest of the public.
There is a world of difference between this group and G/Ts whose "culture" is now outdated thus removing the historic need to travel. The desire may still exist but no longer the need. The G/Ts have no reason to cling on to this lifestyle other than to use the tenuous ethnic and cultural link as an excuse for special treatment on housing provision.
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RJD_Wiz, Basildon says...
10:24am Thu 23 Apr 09
Echo reported a few weeks back that one Basildon school has the lowest SAT results in the country (many believe this demise is due to the large amount of 'Travellers' in the area). Then we hear the A127 was illegally shut down last week due to an equally illegal horse race being held...This sounds like something Basildon could well do without....