Raucous Derbyshire council meeting votes to focus on town's Traveller 'crisis' instead of scrapping earmarked temporary sites

At a Derbyshire Dales District Council meeting this month (November 13), councillors were split on whether to pause further action on temporary Traveller sites at Matlock Bath train station and land next to the cemetery in New Road, Middleton-by-Wirksworth.

Neither of those sites have ever been put forward as permanent Traveller sites.

Councillors had been due to pause any further action on those two sites, which had been put forward by the council last December as a temporary plots, to focus on the hunt for a permanent sites, after a rethink from the leading Lib Dem-led Progressive Alliance (Lib Dem, Green, Labour, non-alligned).

This follows one of the four sites, at Matlock train station, being approved, and another at Old Station Close, Rowsley, being refused, at the authority’s planning committee.

However, this month’s contentious and raucous meeting saw councillors across all political parties – including within the Progressive Alliance – disagree on next steps.

Liberal Democrat councillors, backed by Labour councillors, Bob Butcher and Andy Nash, voted not to pause action on the Matlock Bath and Middleton-by-Wirksworth sites but instead to organise an extraordinary meeting to discuss the ongoing issues with a Traveller site in Ashbourne.

At that meeting, a date for which has not yet been detailed, councillors could also bring forward ideas for temporary Traveller sites to be adopted or disregarded.

Meanwhile, Conservative councillors, Cllr Gareth Gee, a Derbyshire First councillor, Cllr Peter Slack, a Labour councillor and a Green Party councillor – Cllr Nick Whithead, vice chair of the meeting – voted against this plan, with a further Green Party councillor, Cllr Matt Buckler, abstaining from the vote.

This led to the Lib Dem’s Cllr Martin Burfoot, chairing the meeting, to break the deadlock and approve the extra meeting and scrapping of the move to pause action on Matlock Bath and Middleton.

The meeting saw heated allegations from the vice chair, Cllr Whitehead, that the intent was clear, “you’re trying to sell my community (Matlock Bath) down the river to protect your own (in Ashbourne)”.

Cllr Rob Archer, who brought the motion to focus on a “crisis” in Ashbourne first before considering scrapping action on currently considered temporary sites, said he was “upset” by this allegation which left him considering whether it was worth remaining on the council altogether.

For the past couple of weeks, a homeless Traveller family for which the council has a legal obligation to accommodate, moved onto a car park site in Clifton Road, Ashbourne, without permission.

The council currently does not have any recognised temporary or permanent Traveller sites on which to direct the family to.

At this month’s meeting, councillors did agree to reignite discussions with Derbyshire County Council over a potential permanent Traveller site in Watery Lane, Ashbourne, which had previously been approved a decade ago.

This site was suspended a few years after due to the county’s previous Conservative administration pursuing a £21 million bypass plan, which it paused indefinitely before being voted out in May this year.

Cllr Gee said this was an opportunity to “right a wrong” and remove the temporary Traveller site plans for Matlock Bath and Middleton.

He claimed the leading group was “trying to keep the Matlock Bath car park available in case the Ashbourne situation goes pearshaped”.

Cllr Archer said there was an “urgent crisis” which needed to be considered first, saying: “I am not wanting to put travellers in Matlock Bath, I am not wanting to put Travellers anywhere, and if we do stop that happening tonight we have to think about where do we go with the Clifton Road site in Ashbourne. To take it off now would be irresponsible.”

Cllr Whitehead said the community in Matlock Bath had to wait several years for “urgent action” on Travellers staying in the village, not weeks or months, as has been the case recently in Ashbourne.

He said the council would almost be better to recommend all its car parks as temporary sites in order to share the “burden”, a phrase he apologised for, around the district.

Cllr Stuart Lees, Conservative group leader, said there was an urgent need for temporary sites, but not on car parks, and that Watery Lane was not viable and would be too costly.

Simon Benyon, the council’s housing operations manager, said the council could consider compulsory purchase of sites which owners did not want to sell for use by Travellers.

Cllr Slack said the Matlock Bath and Middleton sites needed to be “kicked into the long grass”.

He said: “Last December we made a mistake, we never should have suggested those four sites and should have had our efforts on finding a permanent site.”

Cllr Marilyn Franks, Lib Dem, said there was a “shared responsibility across the Dales”, saying: “We need to look at this through non-bias eyes and not think how we can best get votes for ourselves.”

Cllr Matt Buckler said officers needed to come up with more sites and that more temporary plots ought to have been put forward last December.