Gipsy sites consultation given the go ahead
By Hayley Robinson
A formal consultation is set
to begin over 30 pieces of land in Swale which have been earmarked
as potential gipsy and traveller sites.
Members of Swale Council’s Local
Development Framework Panel agreed to the officers recommendation
to consult with both the travelling communities and residents about
the proposed sites when they met at Swale House last Wednesday.
One of the sites earmarked by the
Kent County Council Gipsy and Traveller Unit is close to the Travel
Inn at Bobbing and next to a primary school.
The news came as a bombshell to
residents who are already fighting plans to allow two caravans
opposite the nearby Garden of England Crematorium.
A decision on the controversial
application for two caravans as well as a single-storey block
providing a toilet, shower kitchen and dining room on land next to
Upper Toes, Sheppey Way, is expected to be made at a Swale council
planning meeting this Thursday following a site
meeting.
Councillors, council officers and
villagers were at the site on Monday, January 25, while
Sittingbourne and Sheppey MP, Derek Wyatt, held his own meeting
there on Friday, January 22.
Bobbing Parish Council only became
aware of the Bobbing Apple plans at its meeting on January 13, to
which the head of the KCC Gipsy and Traveller Unit was invited.
Should the Bobbing Apple site be
accepted as a designated gipsy site, it could be two to three years
before it becomes official - giving villagers and the parish
council time to object.
A spokesman for the council said:
"Details of the consultation are yet to be finalised but will be
announced in due course."
Monday, February 01 2010