Lockdown prevents full use of Cornish traveller and gypsy site

A PURPOSE-built site for gypsy and traveller families has not once operated at full capacity since it was opened, Cornwall Council has said.

Cormac, Cornwall Council’s public works company, built the South Treviddo transit site, off the A38 near Liskeard, at a cost of around £1.75m, and it opened in October 2019.

However, delays to its opening, followed by the pandemic, has meant the site hasn’t ever been full.

It was put together as part of the Council’s legal obligation to provide safe and secure sites for Gypsy and Traveller families, with the council promising a total of 60 new transit pitches by 2030.

South Treviddo has 15 pitches for caravans, meaning a further 45 are needed in the next nine years.

Cornwall Council said there was one family pitched at South Treviddo in 2019.

Then, in 2020, as travel restrictions were brought in during the first coronavirus lockdown, the council limited the number of caravans which could pitch at the site.

A spokesperson said: “During the first lockdown, Cornwall Council put in place a temporary policy to allow unauthorised encampments to remain where they were, or allow them on to South Treviddo at no cost, in order to support them in not moving around whilst travel and movement restrictions were in place.

“Throughout 2020 a policy was also in place that only one group would be accommodated at a time at South Treviddo in order to reduce mixing in line with coronavirus guidance.” This meant South Treviddo remained partly empty throughout 2020, and some traveller families were encouraged to stay where they were to stick to lockdown rules.