Councillors give green light for controversial Derbyshire Traveller site
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At a Derbyshire Dales District Council meeting, plans for eight Traveller pitches on a site known as The Woodyard off the A6 through Homesford, near Cromford, were approved.
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Hide AdThis came 15 months after the council, under a different administration, rejected the identical plans in June 2022.
However, more than a year later, councillors ultimately felt the plot was more sustainable and viable than any other plots the authority had identified over the years, including two it ploughed thousands of pounds into vetting – near Tansley and Carsington Water.
Stephen Walton, speaking against the application, told the meeting: “Here we go again, this one will just not go away will it, even to the point of madness.”
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Hide AdHe said the site was unsuitable and that any occupier was at risk from the A6, the railway and River Derwent.
Dr Siobhan Spencer, from the Derbyshire Gypsy Liaison Group, said: “I’ve said it once, twice and again, but we have got elderly disabled people and carers struggling to cope with no facilities.
“We can’t do another winter. You have to imagine in the freezing winter struggling to the launderette with washing. The job is hard enough for carers in a home with central heating and all the mod-cons.”
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Hide AdDr Spencer said the site met all the criteria of the council’s own “call for sites” to landowners in the area.
She said the considered council site near Tansley was less sustainable and that she had seen planning permission obtained for Traveller sites elsewhere in the country which were far less sustainable.
John Youatt, on behalf of owners, said: “For 15 years the council has shown no respect and no duty of care to the owners of the Woodyard.
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Hide AdHe urged the council to “end this long-standing saga” and provide a positive solution, asking the authority to consider leasing the site from the owners.
Roger Yarwood, agent for the applicant, said: “Finding traveller sites is a nightmare. All councils struggle to find traveller sites and the Derbyshire Dales is worse than most, as is evident from the encampment on Matlock’s main car park.”
He said the authority was looking for a Traveller site 20 years ago when he was still the council’s head of planning.
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Hide AdMr Yarwood said this was the most sustainable site he had dealt with, with previous searches proving it was “impossible” to find a more sustainable plot.
He said the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Partnership’s opposition was baseless, with “more prominent mobile home sites than this throughout the World Heritage Site”.
Cllr David Burton, chair of the planning meeting, said: “What intrigued me about the World Heritage comments was that you’ve got the crumbling East Mill, in Belper, which is supposed to be the jewel of the crown, so, you know, it would be rather nice if they got their own house in order because it is an absolute disgrace when you go into Belper and see that magnificent building and the state that it just continues to linger on in.”
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Hide AdThe partnership had said: “The introduction of eight caravan pitches and their occupation by up to as many caravans, complete with associated paraphernalia, is likely to unacceptably urbanise the setting of this section of the A6.
“The proposed development is likely to create a site with a domestic character that is incongruous with the naturalistic broadleaf woodland that surrounds it.”
Chris Whitmore, the council’s head of planning, said there was public transport access but that Cromford was three kilometres away, and many facilities were in Wirksworth or Matlock, around seven kilometres away.
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Hide AdHe said this form of development would not typically be expected up against the A6.
Cllr Nick Whitehead said he could not understand why the site would be rejected, saying: “Just down the road we have got a very posh version of what has been established in Whatstandwell (in Amber Valley) and there is a lot more than eight of them.”
He said his son travels on the bus as far as families on the site would be expected to, and that bus routes go past the site, getting to Belper in 20 minutes and Cromford in 10 minutes.
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Hide AdCllr Mark Wakeman said the site needed to be approved before the homeless elderly Travellers who the council has a legal duty to house die.
Cllr Peter O’Brien said the proposed pitch sizes were far less than the size recommended, at 70sqm instead of 300-500sqm.
He said: “We spend a lot of time criticising housing developers for proposing housing developments with very small bedrooms and living areas.”
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Hide AdMr Whitmore said the number of pitches on-site may reduce as the plan is progressed.
Cllr Peter Slack said: “All in all it is a much better site than we are used to” due to the availability of electricity and water on the site, along with fencing and vegetation to screen it from view.
Cllr Dermot Murphy said: “I look at that site and then I look at the other site in Hasker Farm, which we spent lots of money on, getting it to a certain stage, and you can’t compare the two.
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Hide Ad“The potential to be fully enclosed, water and electricity on site…I can’t see how it would affect the World Heritage Site at Masson Mills.
“It feels like we are looking for reasons. We have been asking for years for sites and we have got one here that ticks all the boxes. It is time to create potential.”