NEW LAWS coming into force in England next week will make it much more difficult for thousands of Irish members of the Traveller community to set up encampments on greenbelt land, or to win back-dated planning permission for camps already created.
Under the new rules, Travellers will be formally banned from developing greenbelt land, while local authorities, which are increasingly reluctant to house them, will no longer have power compulsorily to buy land for halting sites.
The department of communities and local government said planning rules from Labour’s years in power “have seriously harmed community relations over the last few years, by imposing top-down targets for Traveller sites on local councils”.
The rules had increased the number of unauthorised sites, compelled councils to encroach on to the green belt, while all the time creating “a perception of special treatment for some Travellers undermining the notion of fair play in the planning system and further harming community cohesion”.
The changes mean local authorities should be able to move more quickly to block the creation of illegal halting sites on the scale of Dale Farm outside Basildon in Essex, which was cleared of all but a few Traveller families last year by police and bailiffs.
Local authorities should have a stock of sites available to meet five years’ need, say the guidelines from the department of communities and local government, and should move to identify those that will be needed for up to 15 years ahead.
However, the councils will determine their own level of local need, rather than heeding diktats from London since the department abolished ministerial-set targets that currently oblige councils to provide a fixed number of places.
Conservative ministers blame Labour’s former deputy prime minister John Prescott for rules in 2006 that encouraged Travellers to break greenbelt planning laws, since it was permitted if there was “a specific, identified need” for sites.
The changes in the legislation should make life easier for authorities such as Basildon Borough Council, which has spent more than 10 years trying to clear Dale Farm. Last week, it issued eviction notices to Travellers who now illegally occupy a road outside the nearly empty site.
Basildon has always queried its responsibility under regionally set targets to provide 62 sites for mostly Irish Travellers in its district, arguing that it has already cared for a larger number than other areas. It will now be free to set its own targets.
Powers granted under the Localism Act, which will give councils more sway, provide stronger enforcement powers to tackle unauthorised developments and abuse of retrospective planning permission, according to local government minister Bob Neill.
Making it clear brownfield land will be needed for halting sites in the future, the guidance tells local planning authorities to “strictly limit” new Traveller site development in open countryside away from existing settlements.
“Local planning authorities should ensure that sites in rural areas respect the scale of and do not dominate the nearest settled community, and avoid placing an undue pressure on the local infrastructure,” it says.
Councils have, however, been told to consider the existing number of sites available and the need for them, the availability or otherwise of alternative accommodation and the personal circumstances of applicants.
Councils already receive a bonus from the British government if they provide Traveller halting sites, while Whitehall said £47 million worth of successful bids were announced in January to provide 750 new and refurbished places.
Although the new rules come into force next week, councils will be able to use their powers to tackle illegal sites that have been established for years, although such action could cause difficulties between Conservatives and some Liberal Democrats MPs.
