Call for clampdown on unathourised encampments as council discusses amended plans for traveller site locations around Stratford district

Changes have been made to a planning document which outlines where sites for Gypsies and travellers should be located around Stratford and what those sites should look like.

And while the amendments have been welcomed, there have also been calls for a clampdown on unauthorised sites across the district.

A report before yesterday's (Monday's) cabinet meeting explained that the latest guidelines followed a six-week consultation at the start of the year and changes included widening the areas where new sites could be created while removing the need for recreational areas where there were ten or more pitches.

Deputy leader Cllr Daren Pemberton (Con, Bidford East), presented the item and said: “Our biggest challenge remains the lack of a supply of land being brought forward to accommodate the needs of the gypsy, traveller and travelling showpeople community.

“This is a way of moving us further forward and in the full knowledge that if there is a magic bullet for this issue it is around the availability of sites. We continue to press landowners.”

An unauthorised traveller site at Alcester Rugby Club resulted in a massive clean-up operation early this summer and Cllr Mark Cargill (Con, Alcester and Rural) explained he had been in touch with a Government minister about the situation.

He said: “If we are ‘relaxing’ the criteria then we have to be absolutely certain that any unauthorised pitches are referred immediately to our enforcement team and action taken, otherwise we are opening ourselves up to yet more potential abuse of the planning system.”

He said he had written to Christopher Pincher, Minister of State for Housing, about the issue and the MP had told him that ‘regarding unauthorised developments, it is clear that effective enforcement is important to tackle breaches of a planning control that would otherwise have an unacceptable effect on the amenity of an area’.

Cllr Cargill added: “My point is this - sometimes we see pitches put in, sometimes using subterfuge, and it is difficult for our officers to come along and say there is a problem.

“This document will hopefully open up a few more areas which can be put up for appropriate pitches but we must also enforce against unauthorised pitches that are popping up around our district.”

Cllr Anne Parry (Con, Wellesbourne East) said: “As the portfolio holder for enforcement, I do wish to reassure cabinet members that we will be taking a very robust view with regard to unauthorised sites.”