TRAVELLERS SITE BATTLE IS BACK ON
■ VILLAGERS are raising money to fight a planning application to build a travellers’ encampment on their doorstep. The plan had been dismissed by Derbyshire Dales District Council on cost grounds – but now the Derbyshire Gypsy Liaison Group has submitted plans off its own bat for the site in Clifton
VILLAGERS in Clifton are raising money to fight a planning application to build a travellers’ encampment on their doorstep.
The former coal yard, off Watery Lane, had been dismissed as a traveller site by Derbyshire Dales District Council as it would cost around £1 million throughout its 30 year lease – but now the Derbyshire Gypsy Liaison Group has submitted plans off its own bat.
The latest twist in what has been a long-running saga was thrown into the mix last week, as the planning application for six permanent pitches at the coal yard was made public.
Dr Siobhan Spencer MBE, of the Derbyshire Gypsy Liaison Group, which represents families of travellers in the area, has submitted the plans to change the use of the coal yard into a permanent site.
After Derbyshire Dales District Council dismissed the Clifton site, during a lengthy meeting in September, they voted to pursue a vacant plot of land in Tansley - which caused uproar among locals.
No further moves on progressing this site had been announced but it has often been indicated that a family of travellers the district council has a responsibility to find a permanent site for were not keen on settling in Tansley and wanted to be closer to Ashbourne.
And now the district council will have the option of approving or refusing plans for six pitches, capable of accommodating one touring caravan and one static caravan each, on the Watery Lane site at Clifton.
Back in January 2020, villagers in Clifton first caught wind of the district council’s intentions to add the coal yard to the list of options for a permanent site and more than 200 of them met up one evening to discuss plans to fight any forthcoming applications.
Clifton Parish Council planned to arrange buses to convey campaigners to any forthcoming council meetings, and a handful of residents clocked up legal bills totalling £7,000 preparing their case against it.
Without the site ever being decided on, let alone reaching the planning stage, more than 360 letters of objection had been received.
And now, following the publication of a planning application submitted by the Derbyshire Gypsy Liaison Group, villagers have launched a new crowdfunding campaign to raise a further £6,000 in a bid to stop the application in its tracks. At the time of going to press, it had nearly reached the halfway stage.
The village is also receiving support from its neighbours in Mayfield, as many of its residents live within a few hundred metres of the coal yard.
Villagers say the site is unsuitable, because it is in an area that frequently floods, it sits alongside a surprisingly busy road, it faces the site of the Shrovetide goal and is in an area that would be unsustainable for a family to occupy.
Other complaints listed problems the change of use could cause for local wildlife, the fact the land is contaminated, is next to a scrap yard, and currently offers local employment opportunities.
The detailed planning application includes the outcome of thorough desk studies, covering some of the issues addressed by the objections and it will form part of what is likely to be a large package of documents that will have to be pored over in any future decision-making process.
It is now likely that the pile of submissions will be compiled into a lengthy report, which will be put before members of the district council’s planning committee, and they will be tasked with deciding on whether or not to let the change of use go ahead.
As the situation currently stands, the district council will remain focused on the site at Knabhall Lane, in Tansley, and the Watery Lane, Clifton site will be judged on its own planning merits and issues.
But the potential of a site becoming available which the travellers appear to be taking on themselves could be a boon for council bosses, who have spent many years dealing with unauthorised encampments and evictions of travellers in the district.
The need for a permanent pitch is identified in the authority’s own local plan, which obliges the council to find a site for up to nine pitches in the next few decades.
The district council also has an obligation to find a permanent site for a small group of travellers which has declared itself homeless.
The planning documents do not state which family the proposed site at Clifton would be for.
In the meantime, and in the run-up to the Derbyshire County Council elections next month, Derbyshire Dales Liberal Democrats have recently put pressure on the current leaders of the county council to release land at the site in Ashbourne which they feel could become a better permanent site than the one at Tansley.
The Conservative administration at Derbyshire County Council had previously refused to release the land, which sits alongside the waste and recycling centre and the town’s sewage works, because it could be in line for a proposed A515 bypass.
But since defined routes for the relief road were agreed upon, and now do not run through the Watery Lane site, some councillors and candidates say they would rather it be put back on the table.
The Conservatives say they will not release the land, as they have other uses in mind, which could include extending the town’s waste facilities.
The Labour Party and Green Party were asked for their opinion on the use of the Ashbourne Watery Lane site, but the News Telegraph did not receive any formal responses.
Without the site ever being decided on... more than 360 letters of objection had been received