Beech Hill residents fight proposals for travellers site

That was the view of one of the 100-plus Beech Hill residents who turned up to a parish council meeting on Tuesday to voice their concerns at proposals to build a permanent site for travellers and gypsies in the village.
West Berkshire Council has identified the land at Clappers Farm, at the junction of Cross Lane and Bloomfield Hatch Lane, as one site that could accommodate up to eight pitches for travellers by 2021.
The council says it has to identify 14–16 pitches for travellers and gypsies and a further 24 plots for travelling showpeople in the district over the next 12 years.
As reported in the Newbury Weekly News last week, the plans are outlined as part of a wider document, called the Housing Site Allocations Development Plan Document, which sets out proposals to provide 10,500 new homes in West Berkshire by 2026.
At the Beech Hill Parish Council meeting, which was attended by West Berkshire Council’s head of planning and countryside, Gary Lugg, and planning and transport policy manager, Bryan Little, tempers flared.
Angry residents accused the district council of failing to properly consult them and trying to cover up the issue.
One said: “We have knocked on 250 doors in the village and nobody knew anything about it.
“The only reason so many people are here tonight is because one or two people have told everyone else.
“As you can see, a lot of people are very emotional because people feel it has been done underhand.
“Also, the consultation started when most people are going away on holiday.”
Mr Lugg responded to those claims by saying that the council had written to every resident within 100 metres of the site and had extended the consultation period by a week longer than it legally has to, to give people the chance to have their say.
Concern was also 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.
When one resident asked why the council could not extend existing traveller sites to accommodate the extra need, Mr Lugg said: “Legislation states that we cannot extend to the point where a site is dominating the existing settled community.”
However another resident said: “If eight pitches are put in Beech Hill and there is another traveller site already a couple of miles away in Burghfield, how is that not going to dominate us? There’s only around 400 of us living here.”
Other land in West Berkshire identified as preferred sites for gyspies and travellers is at Padworth Farm (Rag Hill, Aldermaston), New Stocks Farm (Paices Hill, Aldermaston) and the Zippo Circus Headquarters (Enborne).
The development plan went to public consultation on July 25 and will run for seven weeks until September 12.
Following the consultation, the council will prepare a detailed plan to go before full council in December.
Copies of the DPD are available at council offices, libraries and on the council website.