Up to 38 new Traveller pitches earmarked for Gloucestershire

UP to 38 new Travellers pitches are on the way to Gloucestershire - with £1.7 million of taxpayers money being earmarked towards it.

The Government has handed the county the cash windfall in a bid to cater for increasing numbers of Travellers looking to spend time here.

The cash, announced today by the Department for Communities and Local Government, has been handed to a Worcestershire based housing association, which will identify where the pitches will go.

Rooftop Housing and Stroud District Council have worked together on the bid, on the understanding the current Travellers site at Naas Lane, on the Gloucester and Stroud border, could be the location for most of them.

The site is privately owned, but the authority is considering issuing a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) to take over the land and carve it up into at least 30 pitches.

Some small plots could also be found elsewhere in the Stroud area, or even into Gloucester, although the locations are yet to be confirmed.

Philip Skill, head of planning at Stroud District Council, said: “We helped make the bid and the cash is with Rooftop Housing. We need to now have talks with them to see how we can progress on this.”

The future of the Naas Lane site, which is largely derelict land, is up in the air as a group of Travellers are currently trying to take it from the current owners and register it in their name.

If that is successful, there is a possibility Rooftop Housing will look to identify room for 38 pitches on completely different areas in Gloucestershire.

David Hannon, spokesman for the group, said: “Naas Lane is a possible site but there are other areas we can look at for pitches too.”

If any pitches do go elsewhere, there will need to be consultation first.

In recent years Travellers have come under fire for occupying sites across Gloucestershire without permission.
That includes land between Lansdown Road and Estcourt Road in Gloucester.

Caravans have also been spotted at Plock Court during the summer months, leading to gates and boulders being created to keep them out.

Communities Minister Andrew Stunell MP said: “This will assist hundreds of traveller families find sites where they want to live and foster better relations with the existing communities and councils. New authorised sites, with the support of local communities, will be treated on an equal footing as new bricks and mortar homes.”