Council drops controversial plans to house travellers on Derbyshire burial gorund site

Potential plans to temporarily house a Traveller family on a consecrated Derbyshire burial ground have been dropped.
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Derbyshire Dales District Council had considered allowing a homeless Traveller family to temporarily stay on the new Doveridge burial ground in Derby Road.

This came directly from a request from the Derbyshire Gypsy Liaison Group which had asked the council for permission so that a member of a homeless Traveller family could receive surgery and obtain support while recovering from the treatment.

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However, a meeting to discuss the proposal set for Tuesday, May 31 was called off after the family told the council that the surgical procedure had been cancelled.

The proposed burial ground siteThe proposed burial ground site
The proposed burial ground site
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Council officers had said that if the Doveridge site was not temporarily adopted, its risk of breaching its legal duties to accommodate the family is “high”, with the financial consequences also being “medium to high”.

Officers had also put forward that at the same meeting – which was cancelled – councillors should assign one or more “temporary tolerated” Traveller sites.

This was so the authority could have somewhere to direct two homeless Traveller families to. As it stands, the council does not have a single approved temporary or permanent Traveller site in the district – a legal failing it is all too aware of.

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Officers said the following seven sites – which councillors rejected in July 2021 – were the most suitable to choose from.

Agricultural Business Centre, Bakewell

Old Station Close, Rowsley

Matlock Station Car Park

Artists Corner Car Park, Matlock Bath

Matlock Bath Station Car Park

Land at Middleton Road, Wirksworth

Fishpond Meadows Overspill Car Park, Ashbourne

The temporary sites selected would be used for up to eight weeks at a time “in order to prevent the establishment of a longer term temporary encampment of any council-owned site”.

The council has a legal duty to find accommodation for two Traveller families who have formally declared themselves homeless.

One – the family who had asked for the Doveridge site – has been staying just outside the Derbyshire Dales since last July, while the second is living on the Matlock train station car park.

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In April, the council dropped plans to turn a former landfill near Tansley into a temporary and permanent traveller site after 18 months of investigations and thousands of pounds of council money spent.