20 Gypsy and Traveller and Travelling Showpersons accommodation

20 Gypsy and Traveller and Travelling Showpersons accommodation

National policy

20.1 NPPF requires that within the context of the local housing need for an area that the type and tenure of need of different groups should be considered. This includes the need for ‘travellers’ including for those who meet the definition set out in Planning Policy for Traveller sites. The government’s aim is to ensure fair and equal treatment for travellers, in a way that facilitates the traditional and nomadic way of life while respecting the interests of the settled community.

20.2 Local plans should set pitch targets for gypsies and travellers and plot targets for Travelling Showpeople including for transit site provision. A five-year supply of deliverable sites should be identified with other sites or broad locations for the longer-term plan period. Criteria should be set to guide land supply allocations and criteria-based policies to guide decision making. When assessing the suitability of sites in rural or semi-rural settings the plan should ensure the scale of a site(s) does not dominate the nearest settled community. Traveller sites are classed as inappropriate development in the Green Belt although in exceptional circumstances they can be allocated in the Green Belt through the Local Plan.

20.3 Where it is necessary to release Green Belt land for development, plans should give priority to previously developed and, then consider grey belt and then other Green Belt locations, taking account of the need to promote sustainable patterns of development. The ‘golden rules’ for development in the Green Belt set out in NPPF do not apply to traveller sites.

20.4 Rural exception sites can be developed through allocations or policies specifically for small affordable sites in small rural communities. The site must be kept affordable in perpetuity for travellers with a local connection (small rural communities are defined as those designated Section 17 of the Housing Act and secondary legislation).

Evidence base

• Gypsy Traveller Accommodation Needs Assessment (GTANA) (in preparation)
• Planning Appeal APP/C3620/W/24/3336607 (Appeal allowed: Development up to 446 dwellings with up to 0.2ha for traveller pitches (4 pitches). 

Key issues

• How to meet needs identified through the GTANA (in preparation) to ensure a plan-led approach to development.
• Where sites should be provided if not capable of being delivered within settlements or on suitable previously developed sites.
• Approach to Green Belt/grey belt.
• The Council identifying and delivering a transit site to help reduce and manage unauthorised encampments.

Current adopted policy

Suggested policy approach

20.5 The forthcoming Gypsy Traveller Accommodation Needs Assessment (GTANA) will identify future needs and will ask about potential existing site expansion and possible future sites as part of the survey work undertaken. 

20.6 The Council has provided, and continues to manage, two public sites but does not plan to expand these sites or provide new public sites. Therefore, future site provision will either be small privately owned sites or privately rented pitches or plots.

20.7 Previously it has been difficult to identify sites through the local plan process to meet Traveller needs. It is suggested that on larger residential/mixed use sites that provision is made for a relatively small number of pitches to meet Traveller needs. Additionally, the expansion of current sites will be considered where appropriate to meet future needs.

20.8 It is not proposed to develop a rural exception policy under the suggested policy approach, as there are very few areas suitable as identified through the legislation referenced in the Planning Policy for Traveller Sites (PPTS) guidance.  See Housing (Right to Acquire or Enfranchise) (Designated Rural Areas in the North West and Merseyside) Order 1997 (S.I. 1997/622).

20.9 National planning policy requires criteria to be provided for allocation of land for traveller sites although many of the criteria in the current policy relate to general development management concerns. As such, the approach will continue to reflect current Local Plan (Part One) policy SOC 4. 

20.10 The Council may seek to allocate land for a transit site or seek to provide a site via the planning application process should a public transit site be necessary.