Beech Hill Parish Council says gypsy site plans are illegal
Council claims land is protected by covenant
BEECH Hill Parish Council is continuing to question whether the district council’s proposals for a gypsy/traveller site in the village is legal.
The land at Clappers Farm, at the junction of Cross Lane and Bloomfield Hatch Lane, has been cited as one area that could accommodate up to eight pitches for travellers by 2021.
West Berkshire Council said it has to identify 14 to 16 pitches for travellers and gypsies and a further 24 plots for travelling showpeople in the district over the next 12 years, to meet government guidelines, and has included the land in its Housing Site Allocations Development Plan Document (DPD).
However, the parish council believes the land is protected by a covenant imposed by the previous landowners which is still in existence.
An extract from the covenant is understood to read: “No hut, caravan, house on wheels or other temporary building or erection of any kind suitable or adaptable for living or sleeping quarters for human beings shall be erected or placed on any of the land described.”
Beech Hill Parish Council informed the district council of the covenant at a special meeting to discuss the plans last year.
The district council has a copy of the covenant, but has not yet made it clear what its legal view is on it.
Geoff Mayes, a Beech Hill parish councillor, said: “It is still with the district council and they have not made their legal position clear to us yet.”
The proposals for the gypsy/traveller site are outlined as part of a wider DPD document, that sets out proposals to provide 10,500 new homes in West Berkshire by 2026.
At a special Beech Hill Parish Council meeting held last year, more than 100 local residents showed up to voice their anger at the proposals.
Concern was expressed on a number of other issues including the strain any potential traveller site would put on local infrastructure, schools and transport and the tension it would create among the existing settled community.
