Saturday 21 January 2012

Mixed response to Traveller site plans - Wokingham

Families living on an overcrowded Traveller site in Twyford say there is no space to build extra pitches.

A £550,000 grant from the Home and Communities Agency will provide £115,000 for four extra pitches at Twyford Orchards in London Road.

The remaining money will be spent on improvements to 16 pitches already at the site.

However Bill Light, 38, who has lived at the site for 31 years, said: “At the end of the day do we want any more pitches here?

“We don’t need it because it’s already overcrowded as it is.

“If you look at the number of cars which are here, it’s blocked up already.”

Mr Light also raised concerns about new people moving into the site and disrupting the close-knit community.

He said: “If you get more plots up here it means more outsiders and we are quite a good community.

“What is in here at the moment is all family. It changes things.”

The bid for funding was made by Sovereign Housing Group (Housing Solutions) on behalf of Wokingham Borough Council and the two organisations are working on the project together.

The money is part of a £47 million grant pot to fund new and improved Traveller pitches around the country.

Teresa and John Cooper, who have lived at Twyford Orchards for 30 years, said they were concerned the development could encroach on space used for parking.

They said: “If they put the pitches out the front where we have got the trucks there will be problems.

“We’ve had this problem before.

“People have the vehicles and where are they going to go?

“The situation is we do not have any room and if they take my frontage I would have to park everything in the road.”

Mr and Mrs Cooper also raised concerns the extra pitches could lead to access problems for emergency services.

They said: “It needs to be kept clear for the ambulances and things.

“We were against if before when they were on about taking some space.”

But the couple welcomed the possibility of improvements to some pitches on the site.

They said: “It would be good, any improvement would be.

“We have been here nearly 31 years and they have never bothered us.

“They’ve never done anything to the whole place and we were always asking for a drain in the road.

“And then a few years ago we got a new building and now this. It will be good for us but we need to find out what they’re going to do.”

David Stevens, who has lived at Twyford Orchards all his life, said the new pitches would be beneficial to those looking for their own plots.

The 25-year-old, who lives with his partner and baby girl in a shared pitch with his mother, said: “I was a baby here and so I want to get a pitch of my own if there is some.

“I’ll be over the moon if I can get a place. We’ve been on the list for a place for ages.”

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