Cheshire East has given the go-ahead for a gypsy and traveller transit site on land off Cledford Lane in Middlewich, writes Belinda Ryan.
Six councillors voted in favour, four against and one abstained following a two and a half hour debate at the heated strategic planning board meeting.
Visiting speaker Cllr Nick Mannion told the board that the council was in breach of its statutory obligations by not having a transit site.
Cllr Mannion said: “This is the best site in Cheshire East for the provision of one.”
Dawn Taylor, manager of the Cheshire and Warrington traveller team, told the board there had been a rise in the number of unauthorised encampments in Cheshire over the past years.
She said the only authority in Cheshire with a transit site is Halton, and that has far lower unauthorised encampments.
Ms Taylor said: “So far this year we’ve had 149 encampments, 52 of those were in Cheshire East and Halton had 10.”
She said prior to Halton getting a transit site in 2009 its numbers had been much higher.
Board chair Mike Hunter (Middlewich, Lab) told Ms Taylor it was wrong to say that Halton has less encampments than Cheshire East because it has a transit site.
“I think you’re being a bit disingenuous in the reasons that you give for it,” he said, adding there were more traveller routes through Cheshire East and it was closer to the M6.
As his questioning continued Cllr Patrick Redstone (Odd Rode, Con) intervened, accusing Cllr Hunter of ‘hectoring the witness’ and describing his behaviour as ‘unacceptable’.
Earlier in the meeting ward councillor Carol Bulman (Middlewich, Labour), speaking as a visiting councillor, said although this had been on the cards for 10 years ‘it does not make this the right site’.
“The first thing it [government guidelines] says is these facilities should not be placed in an industrial area,” said Cllr Bulman.
“Now 10 years ago, maybe, when it first came up, it probably wasn’t, it was just a field in the middle of nowhere, but it is now… an industrial area, and it can’t be argued otherwise.”
She said the site was also isolated.
“It’s nowhere near easy walking distance to the kind of facilities that we ought to supply for travelling people,” she said, adding: “I know we need a transit site, and I know that this matter is now probably quite urgent, but there are alternatives.”
Cllr Bulman also said the settled travellers in Middlewich did not want the transit site at Cledford Hall and there may be friction.
Cllr Jonathan Parry (Middlewich, Lab) also speaking as a visiting councillor, said the area should be kept as industrial and not mixed with residential.
Cllr Parry said: “This council has been blinkered with Cledford Lane. Most councils have alternatives, no alternative has ever been considered.”
He said the site had changed considerably since it was last given planning permission.
That planning permission in 2015 for a transit site lapsed as the council did not start work on it.
Cllr Parry said: “You’ve got the Ansa waste depot, which this committee approved. You’ve got the Swizzels factory, which this committee approved, and you have got the bypass, which will mean Cledford Lane is a feeder and exit road for this bypass.”
He urged the board to ‘do the right thing, listen to the public’ who objected to the site.
But Cllr Barry Burkhill (Handforth, Ind) argued: “The logic of it is, it has had two permissions in the past.”
He added if a private developer had come along asking for a lapsed permission to be reinstated ‘it would have been virtually automatic’.
The application for 10 gypsy and traveller transit pitches and associated amenity block was approved on a named vote.
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