03 June 2010
Public Consultation For Potential Gypsy And Traveller Sites
Huntingdonshire District Council is seeking views on potential locations for new gypsy and traveller sites in a public consultation which runs from 28 May to 9 July 2010. The sites are either on public land within major development areas, or have been put forward by private landowners and are identified in the third part of the Council’s Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA).
The SHLAA identifies and assesses potentially suitable sites for all types of housing and enables the council to demonstrate to the government that there is an adequate supply of housing land to meet the needs of all sections of the community. Previous parts of the SHLAA looked at land for housing sold on the open market and housing that provides low cost homes in a village specifically for existing or former local residents who wish to return and who are in housing need, and were the subject of public consultation earlier this year.
The Council will use the information included in the SHLAA and the comments from this consultation to inform a future planning document which will formally allocate enough sites to meet the requirements of the East of England Regional Plan. This states that the Council should provide for 46 additional permanent pitches by 2021 plus around 10 transit pitches.
Steve Ingram, Head of Planning Services at the District Council said: “The sites we have looked at are those which have been suggested by landowners and potential developers. We have also looked at the opportunities presented by major developments and we have looked carefully for possible sites on land owned by the District and County Councils, as the Government requires us to do. This exercise potentially gives us a ‘long’ list of sites from which we will need to decide which are the most appropriate – both in terms of the needs of the gypsy community and the settled community.”
Councillor Doug Dew, the Council’s Executive Councillor for Strategic Planning, said: “I hope the public will respond positively to this consultation as this will help us in the next stages of identifying sites. Just because a site is in the SHLAA does not automatically mean that we will allocate it for gypsy development. No decisions have yet been made as to which are the best sites to meet our requirements and I would like to emphasise that we will be consulting again when we have done that further assessment.”
To help people find out more about this exercise, there will be exhibitions around the district, where officers will be on hand to answer questions:
New Community Centre, Ramsey - Thursday 17 June - 2pm to 8pm
St Neots Football Club - Thursday 24 June - 2pm to 8pm
Bluntisham Village Hall - Thursday 1 July - 2pm to 8pm
Huntingdon – Pathfinder House Civic Suite - Thursday 8 July - 2pm to 8pm
Consultation on the SHLAA Update for Gypsy and Traveller Sites will be on-line by clicking on the link on the right. A copy of the document will be available to view at Libraries and Access Points across the District and at the Council’s Customer Service Centres in Huntingdon, St Ives and St Neots.
For more information please telephone 01480 388 382 or email Local Development Framework using the link on the right.