Updated plans for Gypsy and Traveller site approved despite objections

Dale Spridgeon, Local Democracy Reporter

Updated plans in the development of a council Gypsy and Traveller temporary stopping site have been approved.

Anglesey County Council planners agreed to two recommendations which included varied and retrospective conditions over the permitted construction site near Star.

Sitting on of scrub land between Llanfairpwll and the Star crossroads, the site lies between the A55 and the A5.

At a meeting on Wednesday (December 3), the council’s planning and orders committee agreed to two applications – but dealt with them as one related matter when it came to a vote.

The applicants were listed as the Head of Housing Services, through the agents Cadnant Planning.

The meeting heard that a full application for the change of use of agricultural land for use as a  10 space temporary stopping site for Gypsies and Travellers, had originally been granted in October, 2018.

The plans also included creation of a new vehicular and pedestrian access, pavement and associated development.

“The original permission had included a number of conditions that needed to be discharged before work could start,” he said.

However “the conditions for a Construction Traffic Management Plan and an archaeology report had not been discharged before work commenced,” he said.

Planning manager Rhys Lloyd Jones said that a planning statement, presented with the application, had stated that work had started on the site, in February, 2020 – within the five years.

“The planning authority has no evidence to contradict this information,” he said.

He added that evidence had also been supplied including photographs of the access and that there was “confirmation” that  that work was part of that which commenced in 2020.

“The original permission also included a number of conditions that needed to be discharged before work could start,” he said.

Conditions

However, “the conditions for a Construction Traffic Management Plan  and an archaeology report were not discharged before work commenced,” he said.

“Our solicitor has stated that these two conditions did not go to the heart of the permission.

“It is considered  that a Certificate of Lawfulness could be entered into, based on the work carried out,” he said.

The committee was minded to agree with his recommendation to approve, passing the application for a  ‘Lawful Development Certificate, for the existing use of operational development, to implement the former planning permission”.

It also accepted an application under Section 73, for the variation of condition, CTMP (Construction Traffic Management Plan) to agree a detailed report on archaeology work to the previous planning permission, for the creation of the site.

‘Little of interest’ 

The officer noted that archaeological investigations had found “little of interest on the site” and that the construction traffic management plan now submitted had been approved by the highways department.

The two applications would now “enable the conditions to be discharged retrospectively”.

The recommendation was to “approve an application for a Certificate of Lawfulness and to approve the application for the variation of conditions placed on the original permission, allowing the information to be presented after work commenced on the site,” he said.

Objections

Aethwy Cllr Robin Williams stated: “I think I have made my opinions clear in the past as far as this application is concerned, my objections are on the record.

“I don’t think that this location is a safe location for anybody to stay there, in any kind of encampment, as we know there are regulations and rules about what equates to material starts.

“I think putting  a bit of hardcore down and knocking down a wall stretches those regulations a bit.

“I oppose the work but at the end of the day it will be approved by the committee, I am sure.”

The committee voted in favour, although it was noted that one member had abstained.