Change to gipsy law is 'cash-saver'

The scrapping of laws that force councils to build gipsy sites will save thousands of pounds for front line services, a council leader said today.

South Staffordshire Council has spent £30,000 in two-and-a-half years fighting appeals by travellers demanding the right to set up home in the green belt. Under the laws, the council was told to provide 42 new gipsy pitches by 2017.

It put councillors in the position of trying to defend the green belt and uphold planning rules, while catering for quotas.

But Tory communities secretary Eric Pickles has now scrapped the regional strategies that determined how many sites were needed.

The move leaves South Staffordshire Council hopeful of winning five further appeals from travellers after turning down planning permission for pitches.

There are 15 sites across the district already.

The council has already given its evidence in appeals over sites in Rock Bank in Coven and Pool House Barn in Slade Heath.

It is also set to receive three visits from the planning inspector in autumn over plans for sites at Pool House Nursery in Wombourne, the A449 Stafford Road in Penkridge and Calf Heath.

Council leader Brian Edwards said today: "Eric Pickles has told me the rules are going back to the way they were before the regional strategy, which means that we are already providing enough sites.

"I now believe that in any further appeals the inspector will not have to give consideration to the regional strategy.

"This means we have a better chance of winning and therefore not having to spend so much on legal fees. We can put the money to other uses."

In Featherstone, Cheslyn Hay and Coven Heath sites were approved on appeal, despite South Staffordshire Council refusing planning permission on the grounds that it is an "inappropriate use of the green belt."

New South Staffordshire MP Gavin Williamson recently launched a petition demanding a change in the law that allows gipsy sites to be built on green belt land after being refused by councillors, which will be placed before Parliament.