Unauthorised Gypsy Traveller site wins final approval

Twm Owen – Local democracy reporter

An unauthorised Gypsy Traveller site in south east Wales has won final approval just over a year after getting the green light.

When Monmouthshire councillors approved an application for a Travellers site with four pitches for static or touring caravans on hardstanding each with their own day/utility room in July last year it marked the end of an eight-year saga.

However though the 0.44 hectare site, adjacent to the B4598 Abergavenny Road at New Stables opposite Llancayo House in Llancayo near Usk, was approved by councillors final permission couldn’t be granted as an assessment of its potential impact on the river Usk Special Area of Conservation had to be carried out.

Council planning officer Philip Thomas said Natural Resources Wales had now signed off on the acceptable Habitats Regulations Assessment required for a new housing site close to a tributary of the protected river.

Impacts

Potential impacts on the river would include a change in water chemistry including due to pollution, nutrient enrichment and changes in acidity as a result of foul drainage.

Phosphorous will be further removed using a filter comprising a limestone bed which, the Nutrient Neutrality Assessment and Mitigation Strategy states, has an 87 per cent phosphorous removal rate.

Wastewater will discharge into a drainage field and Natural Resources Wales is satisfied it can accommodate wastewater from four pitches intended to house between 16 and 18 people, though the maximum occupancy for the site has been agreed at 12 people.

The planning committee also heard an objection submitted by Llanarth Fawr Community Council which said an unwillingness to “cap the number of residents” put the river Usk conservation site at risk.

‘Mockery’

The council also claimed “brick building work has taken place” and said there is a fifth caravan “stables, kennels and horses on site making a mockery of the planning process”.

Mr Thomas said he visited the site this week and “very little” had changed since he and colleague were there some four or five months earlier and said the level of the drainage field hasn’t changed.

He said some breeze blocks have been put on an existing building but said “that is where a wash or day room is going it is something we will monitor if the permission is implemented.”

Mr Thomas also said a horse had been brought on site to have a foal “but it has now left it was a temporary measure” and also said a fifth caravan was “temporary due to a family situation.”

Trudy Aspinwell-Moore, from the Travelling Ahead Gypsy Traveller advice service, said the applicants had worked with the council to address the issues and gain approval for the private site.