Plans for gypsy site in Hermitage

Plans to turn a stable yard in Hermitage into a gypsy/traveller site have been submitted.

The applicant, who already owns the plot, wants to put a mobile home and a touring caravan on it, while renovating dilapidated stable buildings.

The proposal on land north of the M4 on the east side of Hampstead Norreys Road, Hermitage, was previously refused by West Berkshire Council in 2019.

Then, the highways department objected, due to “lack of information on visibility splays from access”.

The application includes a detailed road safety report dispelling the council’s stand, including extracts from the Crashmap database that indicates that in the last 23 years – which includes the period when the site access would have been in use for the stabling of horses – there have been no recorded incidents of any severity within the proximity of the site access.

The report claims that on this basis it is considered that there is no evidence to suggest that there would be any significant adverse highway safety impacts arising from visibility to the right of the access being below recommended levels.