Gypsy Traveller site decision expected next month

Twm Owen, local democracy reporter

A location for a new Gypsy Traveller site could be revealed in July, councillors have been told.

Three plots of council owned land have been under consideration as potentially suitable for up to six Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pitches each since October of last year.

Those are at Bradbury Farm and Oak Grove Farm both in Crick, near Caldicot, and a field behind residential housing at Langley Close in Magor.

The sites were selected after those, other than Langley Close, on a shortlist were rejected last summer by a council scrutiny committee.

A briefing for the council’s Severnside Area Forum for local councillors said the next step will see potential sites presented to the place scrutiny committee on July 25.

Following that they will be considered by the Labour-led cabinet possibly in late July or early September. The timings have been described as still needing to be finalised.

The council has said it has had to identify 13 pitches, to meet unmet local need, but that number could be reduced through private applications.

The council’s planning committee is due to consider a private householder application on July 16.

The council consulted on its proposed sites for six weeks, from November 9 last year, and it has said it is still analysing the feedback from that consultation and the site surveys it has had carried out.

The report for the local councillors stated: “The feedback received through the public consultation is both varied and extensive. In general, the content of the site evaluation surveys is technical and complex. It, therefore, has been necessary to give time to consider and understand both the information and draw conclusions.”

The cabinet will have to decide which sites should be put forward into the local development plan which sets out where new housing and employment sites should be located, and there will be a full consultation on that planning blueprint.