Gypsy family are offered Rowsley traveller site

Derbyshire Dales District Council made the offer on Friday, April 5, for the family to move onto the car park at Old Station Close, in Rowsley.

The offer is for a period of nine months – from the date that the family move in – and is intended as a stop-gap while the district council seek a permanent site.

The family now have three weeks to make a decision.

If they accept, surfacing work will start straight away and the district council will instruct Severn-Trent Water to connect a water supply to the site.

If they refuse – which seems a likely option – the matter will go to County Court to see if the offer made by the authority was a reasonable one.

Before planning permission was granted – at a meeting on March 23 – Siobhan Spencer, of Derbyshire Gypsy Liason Group, who will be assisting the family with the decision, slammed the Rowsley plans as a “waste of money” and branded the Old Station Close car park as “unsuitable”.