Planning application for gypsy and traveller site

A planning application will be submitted this week for a controversial Gypsy and Traveller site.
Last winter, Denbighshire council held a public consultation on the plans for the site.
The county council is proposing  a  permanent residential site for an extended family living in Denbighshire, at Green Gates Farm East near St Asaph, just off the A55.
The site will be home to six households of an extended family that is already resident in the county and will be managed by Denbighshire Housing with residents paying rent and council tax through a social tenancy agreement.
At the time of the consultation the proposal  provoked a huge public reaction with more than 770 formal responses and a 4,000-signature strong petition handed in to Denbighshire council chiefs.
But as this will be a formal planning application members of the public wishing to have their say will have to make fresh submissions.
Once the application forms are validated the proposal is expected to come before the county’s planning committee at the end of the year, with the public having 21 days to respond to the plans.
The council is required by law to provide a suitable site for Gypsy and Traveller families in the county.
Cllr Mark Young, the cabinet member for planning, public protection and safer communities, said: “We have a legal and I believe a moral obligation to provide a site and Denbighshire needs to get on and sort this out.”
A spokesman for the council added: “We recognise the strength of feelings locally, a lot of people have attended the meetings locally. We did not need to do that because it was  a pre-planning consultation but we felt it was absolutely the right thing to do to have those discussions with local people in the area.”

By Shane Brennan – Local Democracy Reporter