Debate over Gypsy site near Warwick continues as public inquiry ends

A public inquiry into whether the Romani Gypsies have a right to remain on the site off Kites Nest Lane in Beausale re-opened at Leamington town hall this week.

Warwick District Council, which controls planning matters in the area, commissioned government-appointed inspector Antony Fussey to hold the inquiry after a retrospective planning application for permission to stay there, put forward by the families, was rejected. They were also subjected to a High Court order barring them from carrying out further developments at the site, but they have appealed against both decisions.

Speaking at the inquiry on Tuesday, witness Richard Dunnett, director of planning at Leicester-based planning solicitors’ Marrons, said: “There are many areas on the plan of the site which show there is not sufficient space for landscaping.

“It is an urban settlement in a rural area, so the impact of any landscaping is really going to be very limited.”

Mr Dunnett also pointed out that the site, onto which the Gypsies moved without permission during a bank holiday weekend in May last year, had had several drainage problems when there has been heavy rainfall.

He said: “The health of travellers is known to be significantly worse than what we might call the settled population.

“So putting travellers on a site where there appear to be drainage problems on a regular occurrence would not be in the vested interests of the potential residents. Living in such a damp environment could lead to all sorts of respiratory problems.”

He also said that the Gypsies’ settlement would be harmful to those who live nearby. He said: “For people who buy a property in the greenbelt in a quiet country lane, an urban development built next to them is bound to have an effect on their living situation. It’s pretty intolerable and I have sympathy for that position.”

Representing the Gypsies, Michael Rudd pointed out that there is an “inherent tension” between the traveller community and the settled population. He said: “At the end of the day, it’s a boggy field which has no agricultural value.

“It’s absolutely inconceivable that there cannot be some sort of surface water management. It seems that the local community are presenting what I would call a contrived case.”

At the opening of the inquiry in January, Mr Fussey had said the Gypsies accepted that the development was inappropriate in the greenbelt. But they still argued they had a right to stay and it was the purpose of the inquiry to determine whether this was the case.

After a ten-week adjournment, the inquiry re-opened this week and ended on Wednesday. Mr Fussey will, during the next few weeks, compile a report of his findings, which he will present to the Secretary of State for Local Government, Eric Pickles, who will then make a decision on the Gyspies’ right to remain.

Their application for permanent pitches was rejected in June last year. More than 400 objections had been lodged and a 333-signature petition submitted.