Council chief tells of frustration over search for a travellers’ site
DERBYSHIRE Dales District Council’s leader says he is “extremely frustrated” at the continued wait for a permanent traveller site that would end decades of failings on the issue.
The authority has a legal duty to provide a permanent site for travellers to call their home, but it has failed in this duty for decades, a failure which it is all too aware of and has apologised for on numerous occasions.
A series of travellers have recently set up an unauthorised “encampment” at the Agricultural Business Centre in Bakewell, and the council has started eviction proceedings.
The council says that the unauthorised encampment “is not one that would be accommodated on a permanent site”.
Despite this, throughout council meetings over the past few years in particular, councillors and officers have stressed that the lack of a permanent site, or even a temporary site, has exacerbated issues related to unauthorised encampments.
This, in turn, has put pressure on a small number of council officers and staff, and on the authority’s legal and financial resources.
The council begrudgingly approved the earmarking of a temporary and permanent traveller site on a former landfill in Knabhall Lane, Tansley, despite opposition, in September 2020.
A year-and-a-half on, a planning application has not yet been filed for the site and the costs of turning it into one have not yet been disclosed.
The site does not have access to water or electricity, and may be harmful to residents due to its previous landfill use and associated contamination.
Two traveller families have declared themselves homeless and the council has a legal duty to provide them with a permanent home to call their own, but it has not done this.
In July 2021, councillors spiked a desperate plea from council officers to earmark seven sites across the district as temporary tolerated sites where travellers could be accommodated for up to eight weeks at a time, before being moved to another of the temporary sites.
Councillor Garry Purdy, leader of the district council, said: “It is extremely frustrating, but we will not stop the search for a site.
“We have been looking at the Knabhall Lane site and we are looking at another site at the moment too.
“When I was appointed leader I was determined to get a permanent traveller site. Work on the Tansley site has been going on for some time now and that tells you something about how well it is going, and the search through consultants has not worked out for us. The site at Tansley was the least problematic, we thought at the time, so we are continuing the search.
“We have to provide a site under the Local Plan and we have to provide one by law.
“The problem we face is everywhere we look to provide a site there is total opposition, total uproar. That is what we are up against.
“The families we have a legal duty for just want a piece of land to call their own and that is what some of the public don’t understand.
“They want their own plot of land to call home and until then they will keep having to be evicted from wherever they are.”
Tansley councillor David Hughes says the site in Knabhall Lane is a “no go”.
He said: “I don’t think anybody feels the Tansley site is fit for travellers and I know that the district council is still looking for sites.
“I know officers were disappointed that they could not assign seven temporary sites.
“The family in Matlock have been well settled for some time.
“Officers are still working on the implications of the Tansley site and checking whether the soil is safe to put people on and whether it will meet Government guidelines.
“The Tansley site would mean they would have to use their cars to get everywhere and the kids would be cut off from school.
“To push people into this when they have no choice about it is not sensible.
“Moving people on all the time is going to cause people stress and will cause locals stress too.” Sarah Dines, Derbyshire Dales MP, said last week: “To not have a permanent site, we are not only failing residents, but also the traveller community.”
A spokesperson for the district council said a report on issues relating to travellers in the Dales will be discussed on April 27.
This would include a potential application for Government funding to support the construction of permanent traveller sites, an update on the Tansley site, and an update on the lack of a temporary or permanent site.
When I was appointed leader I was determined to get a permanent traveller site.
Councillor Garry Purdy