DECISION TO BE MADE OVER TRAVELLERS' SITE

A RETROSPECTIVE planning application put in by a group of travellers in Beausale will be heard at the end of this month.

The meeting will take place on Wednesday June 30 and Warwick District Council’s (WDC) planning committee will decide whether permission will be given to develop the site in Kites Nest Lane, near Kenilworth.

A public meeting took place last Friday evening to discuss the site.

It was held at Hatton Village Hall, in Birmingham Road, and was attended by scores of people, including residents, representatives from the travellers’ site, chief executive of WDC Chris Elliott, council members and Warwickshire Police.

Tory MPs Jeremy Wright, for Kenilworth and Southam, and Chris White, for Warwick and Leamington, were also there to provide their objections to the planning application, alongside the Council for the Protection of Rural England.

The meeting provided a platform for people to ask the council questions about the planning application.

A spokesman for action group Friends of the Greenbelt, said: “It is great to see such a cohesive front against this cynical retrospective planning application and we particularly appreciate the show of support at this meeting from other action groups such as Meriden Raid and Budbrooke Barg.

“The next big milestone is June 30 when the planning application will be heard and a decision made and we would ask the local community to continue in their unanimous objection to this application.”

During the first May bank holiday, travellers in 15 caravans turned up at the site with diggers and rollers and began to develop the site without planning permission.

WDC issued an emergency stop notice to ensure no further work was carried out until the planning application was heard.

A High Court injunction was also granted last month to stop any further development.

The application is seeking permission for the change of use of the land for British Romani Gypsy families for 13 permanent pitches for mobile homes, 13 touring caravans for nomadic use only and 13 utility day rooms.

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