Government urges councils to provide sites for Travellers
New guidance from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister will see local authorities ordered to identity appropriate land for Traveller and Gypsy encampments.
It is part of a twin-track approach aimed at reducing the number of illegal sites, often on green belt land, which have infuriated local councils and residents.
Temporary Stop Notice regulations came into force earlier in the week, which will allow councils to act immediately to stop development on unauthorised sites. The ODPM has also set up a new Traveller and Gypsy Unit within the ODPM to advise and support local authorities around the clock.
While the plans have been welcomed by Travellers’ groups, the Conservatives have branded them a ‘diktat’ to councils that will lead to more sites built against the wishes of local settled communities.
The ODPM estimates that there is a shortage of 4,500 Traveller pitches around the country and says that the shortage of sites means many Gypsy and Traveller families are left without anywhere to go. The shortage also means it is more difficult to move-on unauthorised groups.
And, in the first use of enforcement action under the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, the ODPM has ordered Brentwood Borough Council to produce a development plan to allocate land for Gypsies and Travellers after it council failed to “include sufficient proposals to address the issue” in its draft development scheme.
Minister for Housing Yvette Cooper said: “We need more appropriate sites for Gypsies and Travellers alongside swifter enforcement on inappropriate sites. The two things have to go hand in hand. That is why we have introduced new powers from today for swift enforcement alongside new obligations in the planning system to identify appropriate locations for more sites where needed.”
But Eric Pickles, the Shadow Minister for Local Government, attacked the plans accusing the Government of issuing a diktat to councils.
Mr Pickles said: “The Government is riding roughshod over planning laws, setting targets for more traveller sites and ignoring the views of local communities.
“Under Labour, our planning system is in crisis; John Prescott’s response to travellers side-stepping planning laws is to let his regional quangos impose more traveller camps on every town. Local councils will be forced to follow arbitrary diktats for new traveller camps – imposed by unwanted and unelected regional bureaucrats.”
