Anger as traveller site gets go-ahead

More than 110 letters of objection were received for the plans to create a new gypsy

and traveller site with 10 permanent pitches with studio buildings, two transit pitches with studio buildings, a site manager’s office and a sewage treatment plant on land at Dunton Lane.

Speaking against the scheme at Wednesday’s Central Beds Council development control meeting, Cllr Janice Pritchard said Dunton Parish Council opposed the plans.

“It’s simply the wrong location for development”, she said. “It’s an unacceptable change to the landscape which could lead to further development.”

Independent Cllr Adam Zerny said there was a lack of facilities in Dunton, including no health care services and a lack of school places, and that it would be outside the community, in open counttryside, on a very busy road.

He added residents had the funding for a judicial review if the plans went ahead.

Residents also raised the issues of a lack of facilities, no footpaths to Dunton or Biggleswade from the site, and that the area had previously been rejected as suitable for a traveller site.

But approving the scheme, councillors said CBC had a duty to provide traveller sites and there had been a history within the borough of rejecting them.

They agreed the proposed development was in a sustainable location and would provide permanent and transit pitches towards the Council’s 5 year supply of gypsy and traveller accommodation.