‘Why we took the travellers’ plight into our own hands’
THE group that has submitted a planning application to create traveller pitches at a coal yard in Clifton has explained why they took matters into their own hands.
The News Telegraph has spoken to Dr Siobhan Spencer, of the Derbyshire Gypsy Liaison Group, after she dropped in a planning application to create six pitches at a controversial site in Watery Lane.
The detailed application, which was submitted at the cost of the volunteer-run liaison group, aims to bring an end to decades of disruption for a local family of travellers who have spent much of their lives being moved from encampment to encampment in the Derbyshire Dales.
Derbyshire Dales District Council, which has a responsibility to locate a permanent site for them under the Homelessness Act, had earmarked a site in Tansley but Dr Spencer says the family has “real reservations” over its long-term, year-round suitability.
She said: “We looked at the Tansley site, we did have it on a shortlist at one time, and it would be fine for summer stopping, but when you’ve got elderly disabled people, it’s not the place you’d want them to be staying during the winter. So we had real reservations about the Tansley site, that worried us.
“The other thing that disappointed us is that the family in question need help and support from their own family that were based in the south of the county, so we were disappointed that the Clifton site was thrown out so quickly.
“That’s what made me go back and have another look.”
The Clifton site, located close to the Shrovetide goal and is occupied by a privately-owned coal business, had been in a shortlist of plots identified by a district council-commissioned study.
It was one of just a handful of sites discussed at a meeting last year, but councillors quickly dismissed it on the basis of the cost of its lease, and eventually Tansley was voted in as the preferred option.
When villagers first caught wind of the fact the Clifton site was being explored by the district council, they quickly mobilised a campaign and submitted hundreds of letters to the district council opposing the rumoured plans. Since the Tansley site, at Knabhall Lane, was officially earmarked, villagers there have also launched a campaign to block the plans, but Derbyshire Dales District Council has not yet submitted a planning application to convert it.
Meanwhile Clifton Parish Council and a local lobby group have started raising money to fight the Derbyshire Gypsy Liaison Group’s planning application, which is set to go before councillors in the coming weeks.
Among the objections they are putting forward are suggestions that the site is unsuitable because of flooding nearby, because of the busy lane that runs alongside the site, a lack of amenities and proximity to a few houses.
In total, £5,000 has now been raised to cover legal costs of fighting the planning application, and dozens of letters have already been sent to Derbyshire Dales District Council since the application was validated on Friday, April 9.
But Dr Spencer says if the site was to go ahead it would only provide land for up to 12 people, some of whom are elderly or have special needs, and all of whom are “from Derbyshire and are wellknown”.
The six pitches would allow space only for the local family and some members of their extended family that provide support, she insisted.
She said: “I think people are worried that families will just be on and off, on and off, and that there won’t be any management there.
“But it’ll settle down very nicely, with good management on site, there will just be their extended family, and it will be well managed.”
Dr Spencer has also pointed out that the family the district council has been trying to help has never been keen to accept public money, and that it is their culture to pay their own way, even though they are entitled to the same support as anyone else in the settled community.
Younger members of the family have their own sources of income, Dr Spencer says, and other family members provide care for relatives without having to draw on NHS resources. The group prefers to be self-sufficient, she points out.
And while public perception of travellers has always been an obstacle, with opposition from neighbours mounting at every turn, Dr Spencer is also keen to explain that the challenges are also increasing for the family itself. She said: “It’s been very difficult for the family members, trying to look after elderly people at the side of the road is hard.
“You’ve got no washing facilities, and even just accessing things like water.
“It’s been especially different during Covid, because the usual places they can go for basic facilities have been closed.
“Something’s got to move. I’d love to see an end to it.
“It has been a long, tedious thing and they are desperate now, for it to be sorted before another winter sets in.”
The family need support from their family based in the south of the county.
Dr Siobhan Spencer