Agenda item

Agenda item

Gypsy and Traveller Accommodation Assessment - Update Study

Report of the Head of Planning and Infrastructure.

 

Minutes:

The Principal Planning Officer presented the report, and outlined the findings of the assessment which had been prepared by external consultants. Officers clarified that the assessment did not seek to identify potential sites but to identify the future requirement and need. The definitions used by the government in Planning Policy for Travellers Sites (PPTS) were also highlighted to members.

 

The need for accommodation was set out and it was noted that the majority of the need would be required in the next 5 years (the “current” need). Officers outlined the Smith Case, which had recently been taken to the Court of Appeal and which found that there had been discrimination against travellers who were settled.

 

This prompted a member to ask whether the Government would be required to produce a new definition for travellers who have stopped travelling, however officers advised at this stage there would be no need for the Government to do so and nor was there any indication that they would.

 

A member enquired whether the revised Local Plan would be required to identify potential sites or if it would only indicate that the Council needed to find sites. Officers responded that there would be further investigation into whether the need could be accommodated by extending existing sites, and whilst it would be helpful to include proposed extension to existing sites in the Local Plan, identified sites may not be agreeable to the gypsy and traveller communities which they would be intended to serve. It was noted that whatever the Council would include in the Local Plan it would include e a criteria based policy to assess any sites that come forward as planning applications.

 

A member asked if this authority would be required to identify or supply a transit site. Officers advised that it would be unlikely for the Local Plan to fail on the basis of not identifying transit sites, however in order to be pro active the Council had already looked at potentially identifying a transit site and acknowledged that there would be a strategy needed to show that an appropriate site had been considered and sought.

 

Members expressed concern at the current lack of transit accommodation within the district, citing worries that should an incursion occur, there would be no suitable site for the police to move travellers on to and asked whether the Council would need to identify a transit site for inclusion in the Local Plan. Officers responded that having a transit site would strengthen the Council’s position and this could be done either by inclusion in the Local Plan or by a separate planning application, and noted that a planning application could be dealt with more quickly.

 

A member asked how the difference between those who had temporarily or permanently stopped travelling was ascertained and officers replied that this would be dependent on the facts of each individual case. For example should a member of the community declare they were no longer travelling they would then not meet the definition.

 

A member asked officers to quantify the number of potential sites which may be available and officers advised that round 500 sites had been looked at, with three or four considered suitable, however that this would require further scrutiny.

 

Officers informed the meeting that there is only a need for a site in Leicestershire so the onus would not directly be on NWLDC to identify a site. A member asked that if the Council did find a suitable site to allocate as transit accommodation whether the other districts in the county would be entitled to move any communities who have committed an incursion onto the site under the control of NWLDC. Officers confirmed that this would be the case.

 

Members requested a change to the wording of the recommendations to include that “this Council look to include provision of a transit site as a matter of urgency” and officers agreed that the request would be accommodated.

 

It was moved by Councillor J Legrys, seconded by Councillor D Harrison and

 

RESOLVED THAT:

 

  1. The findings of the 2022 Gypsy and Traveller Accommodation Assessment, prepared by Opinion Research Services (ORS), which will be capable of being a material consideration in the determination of planning applications be noted.

2.The next steps as set out in section 4 of this report, and that this  Council look to include provision of a transit site as a matter of urgency, be noted.

 

 

Supporting documents: