100-plus object to traveller site
MORE than 100 people have now officially lodged objections to a proposal for a travellers’ site at a coal yard in Clifton.
Derbyshire Dales District Council has been flooded with letters objecting to the planning application, by the Derbyshire Gypsy Liaison Group, to set up six pitches capable of accommodating one static and one touring caravan each at the site off Watery Lane.
The groundswell of opposition has been fuelled by a public campaign in Clifton, spurred on by a residents’ group that has sent leaflets around all households and raised money to recruit legal representatives.
The strength of feeling in the village is such that, last week, messages were daubed on the windows of a bus shelter, urging passers-by to object to the plan.
The gypsy liaison group says the Watery Lane site would be ideal for the family in question, which wants to set up in the Ashbourne area and has an increasingly urgent health-related need to settle.
But campaign group CASCAID (Clifton and Surrounding Communities Against Inappropriate Development), which was set up by villagers in 2019 when rumours arose that Derbyshire Dales District Council itself was eyeing up the coal yard, insists the site is not suitable.
One of the group’s members, Debbie Harding, has told the News Telegraph the plot has a string of issues that would make it unsuitable for people to occupy.
The site, which sits on a former railway trackbed, has been used for storing and moving coal for more than 30 years.
And this, Mrs Harding says, would make it unsafe for habitation.
She said: “It is reasonable to expect contamination with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, a known class-one human carcinogen.
“The travellers’ own commissioned safety report for the site suggests that there is also likely contamination with sulphates, metals and solvents, all of which are also harmful to health.
“No one should live on this site before extensive and expensive remediation has been done.”
The site also lies next to a floodrisk zone, sits next to a residential property and has no access to amenities, Mrs Harding points out. As do many of the letters sent to council officials.
However one of the village’s main bugbears with the coal yard is the access to Watery Lane itself.
The junctions either end of the lane are tight, and there have been many documented incidents of large vehicles becoming stuck, or even damaging walls.
Mrs Harding said: “Critically, exit from the site by foot or vehicle is dangerous, with very poor sightlines in every direction.
“The narrow lane and lack of any pavements leaves pedestrians vulnerable.
“Entry to the site is via either end of Watery lane; both junctions are inherently dangerous because of the narrow lane with no pavements.
“There are genuine safety issues that cannot be ignored, and which have already been recognised by Highways.
“To date, planning applications for residential housing on this site have all been denied because of ‘intensification of use of a substandard junction in the creation of additional hazards to, and interference with, the free and safe flow of traffic.’
“If the land is unsuitable for residential use for safety reasons, it is unsuitable for travellers.”
“A recent independent Highways report supports the historic view of County Highways that the entry and exit points are already unsafe.
“They concluded in their report that intensification of use of the coal yard would be contrary to national planning policy because of the significant safety issues that would result,” Mrs Harding added.
“A traveller site at the coal yard would not just be unsafe for the travelling community, but also for the circa 300 residents who live in the village.”
Although nearly all of the representations submitted to Derbyshire Dales District Council were objecting to the plans, there was one letter of support.
Tansley Parish Council, which is itself mobilising a fight against a proposed permanent traveller site in Knabhall Lane, wrote into Derbyshire Dales District Council welcoming the Clifton application.
The parish council’s letter states that they would have preferred another Watery Lane site, in Ashbourne, off Mayfield Road, to have been pursued, but the Clifton site, they point out, is still in the family’s preferred location.
Unlike the Knabhall Lane site, the coal yard, the letter continues, already has hard standing, electricity and mains water.
Passing the application, the letter adds, would ensure Derbyshire Dales District Council meets its statutory duty to provide traveller accommodation without any financial impact on the public purse.
However, villagers in Clifton argue that, because the coal yard would be acquired by the travellers on a lease, it would not represent a permanent solution.
Mrs Harding said: “Whilst Clifton residents have every sympathy with the plight of the travelling families and appreciate the need to find them a permanent site, it must be recognised that a suitable permanent site has already been found and identified, and it is not in Clifton.
“Clifton villagers are justified in feeling strongly that Derbyshire Dales District Council should adhere to government guidelines to ensure that the site identified is a suitable one and proceed with the site they have voted for in Tansley.
“Every site has drawbacks, but the site in Clifton fails the guideline criteria to an unacceptable degree, and for that reason alone the application will be fought vigorously by locals.
“Forcing a dangerous and inappropriate development on Clifton village, to gain a temporary, unsafe and inappropriate site for travellers will be a failing not just to every local resident, but to the traveller families themselves.”
Objectors and supporters of the application have until Thursday, May 13 to write in to Derbyshire Dales District Council.
The authority’s planning committee will discuss the plans in public several weeks after that deadline has passed.
No one should live on this site before expensive remediation has been done
Debbie Harding