‘We had no alternative’ – Shropshire traveller family applies for retrospective pitch permission
A traveller family has explained why they moved on to land near Market Drayton without first getting planning permission.
Now, the Quinn family has lodged an application to change the use of a 0.95 hectare stables site in Hatton Road, Hinstock, into a one-pitch gipsy and traveller site with a day room and for the keeping of horses.
Planning agent Mike Carr, of Mat Design Limited, told planners at Shropshire Council that they had an urgent reason to find a place and not stay on the side of roads.
It was exacerbated by a huge shortage of accommodation for people with a nomadic lifestyle across the region, the council has been told.
“Due to the pressure of finding a settled place to live and health concerns attached to the applicant and his family members, we did not carry out a pre-application enquiry and work has been carried out to develop the site,” Mr Carr wrote.
“The application for planning permission is therefore retrospective. Moving forward, we consider to be the long-term undersupply of suitable and available gipsy and traveller family pitch accommodation carries considerable weight in the decision-making process.”
Mr Carr has told council planners that the family has sought alternative accommodation which could respect the “cultural needs and heritage of the family".
The planning agent writes that the family are persons of “nomadic habit travelling for the purposes of employment".
But he adds that no suitable accommodation is available in Shropshire or the wider northeast region.
Mr Carr adds that the “lack of alternative site provision also carries substantial weight in favour of this application".
The agent adds that the site is “sustainably located and would not, by virtue of its size and position, dominate the nearest settled community”.
Planners were told that an assessment of Gypsy and Traveller and Travelling Showperson Accommodation carried out earlier this year said there will be an overall minimum need for 90 additional gipsy and traveller pitches across Shropshire in the next 20 years.
The agent writes that the Quinn family was not surveyed as a part of that assessment.
Mr Carr adds that Shropshire does not have a five year supply of gipsy and traveller sites which is a “significant material factor in the consideration of this planning application.
“The alternative would be that the family is forced into further roadside encampments.”
The council’s “failure of policy” is “unfair towards gipsy and traveller people”, the agent adds.
“In terms of the personal circumstances of the family, they have no alternative or suitable accommodation that would support their cultural heritage and nomadic lifestyle.
“Furthermore, we consider that the needs of the family and their children are of primary importance in the decision-making process, so that they can have access to the same life chances and opportunities as those children in the settled community.”
The agent adds that if the council cannot grant full planning permission they have asked for temporary consent for a minimum of five years.
This, the agent adds, may give the council enough time to carry out its statutory duties to find suitable sites.
A period of public consultation has begun and details of the plan can be found on the Shropshire Council planning website.
You can find out more about planning applications and planned roadworks where you live by visiting publicnoticeportal.uk.
