Mr Richard Clifton
1, Well Street
Oakham Langham
Rutland
14 May 2013 Reference :2013I0296 - Proposed Permanent Travellers and Gypsies Site Principal Planning Officer Mr N Hodgett.
Dear Mr Hodgett,
Thank you for your letter of 3rd May 2013 concerning my application for a Proposed Permanent Travellers and Gypsies Site on the former Ashwell Prison Site. Supporting information, some of which you request, has earlier been supplied with the completed application forms, as Justification Design and Access Statement. Papers were delivered together, by hand to Catrnose.
To address the points in your letter:
1 The application is for a Permanent Travellers and Gypsies Site in Rutland,which has not been available previously for Travellers and Gypsies.
The land is a brown field site and is now owned by Rutland County Council, following the recently purchase, as part of a larger 25 acre site from the Ministry of Justice.
2 Currently, without such a site, and proper provision, Travellers and Gypsies are not properly served by Rutland County Council. Without such provision,Travellers and Gypsies may breach planning regulations and few anywhere within the County in order to fulfil their living requirements and possibly their human rights.
3 This is a Generic application, which should have been fulfilled in earlier years,and for a variety of reasons has not been addressed by Rutland County Council since its separation from Leicestershire previously.
4 As the owner of the land under this proposal is now Rutland County Council,and that the land has only recently come into the County‘s ownership, this land is now available and unused, part of a larger brown-field site. It has been formerly a large football pitch which has been cited publicly by Councillor King as being not usable for football now, and that it falls outside the consented industrial scheme. It would be perverse to consider that Rutland County Council, with this new site ownership not earmarked for use, and with a long period of having no Traveller policy or arrangements in place, would now choose not to be a “willing landowner”.
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Travellers and Gypsies in Rutland in earlier times sadly have had to settle their own needs themselves, at apparently great cost, without any assistance from the County Council. In so doing they have broken the Planning regulations and law. I am aware of Policy 0812 of the Core Strategy.
The Design and Access Statement of my application is framed on this Policy and other recent Government guidelines. l refer you again to this accompanying document. I believe the proposed site well suitsthe criteria outlined in 0812. Firstly and foremost Rutland County Council now own an available and affordablebrown-field site. Under the circumstances it would be expected that the council would be a willing landlord, for reasons given above, as will as no longer wishing to continue to expose Rutland County to the pressures of unlawful use of green field sites in the future. The proposed Ashwell site development would allow Travellers and Gypsies to be situated within a community, and also in a countryside location within a brownfield site, thus following the Government directive of not placing permanent Travellers and Gypsy sites in open countryside.
This proposal respects and does not dominate the next nearest settled community, Ashwell Village, some considerable distance away, totally out of sighted distance. The proposal also allows for integration and not isolation in the location provided. The proposed site will allow close proximity and accessibility to the facilities that areusually needed when Travellers and Gypsies seek a fixed location, usually during the winter period, i.e. schools, medical facilities and animal care. These needs are cited under Policy Matters in the Design and Access Statement in the papers presented with the application. Appropriate water and drainage facilities are already within the larger Ashwell site,and can be perceived as being able to be resourced appropriately within theproposal site, for as many pitches as the site may hold on a pod basis. i believe that this site by its very situation may be well planned, positioned, andresourced within an affordable budget. The only major outlay might come from soft landscaping and screening for privacy in such a way as to positively enhance the landscape, and also provide possible open safe play areas for children. This is a golden opportunity for Rutland County Council with the ownership of the land currently available, to respond to and support Travellers and Gypsies needs securely within the Rutland and Government Frameworks and within the Rutland wider Community
Yours sincerely Richard Clifton
