Minister to decide on site for travellers

The Government has intervened in a planning row in South Staffordshire between the district council and gipsy families who want to build 24 permanent caravans on green belt land.

Secretary of State for Local Government Eric Pickles has called in the controversial plan because it is a "significant development in the green belt". He will now make the decision on whether or not to allow the camp which, if granted, will be the biggest single gipsy site in South Staffordshire.

Traveller William Lee wants permission for nine gipsy pitches housing 24 caravans on land at Wolverhampton Road, Penkridge.

The council refused the bid in January after earlier obtaining a High Court injunction to prevent more caravans joining 10 already illegally on site but the group appealed.

Their barrister Alan Masters told a public inquiry earlier this month that gipsies were entitled to live on the land under British planning law and the Human Rights Act.

Satnam Choongh, barrister for the council, agreed there was an unmet need for gipsy sites but insisted the harm to green belt land in this case outweighed that need.

A gipsy and traveller accommodation assessment for the council has stated a need for 32 pitches in South Staffordshire between 2007 and 2012, and 79 by 2026.

Some 24 permanent and six temporary pitches had been granted since 2007 and the latest application would take the council beyond its immediate requirement.

The inquiry heard that at least 27 gipsy families were seeking accommodation in South Staffordshire.

Two further inquiries are pending.

The Penkridge hearing, which lasted three days, was due to have been decided by the Planning Inspectorate based in Bristol.

Today South Staffordshire Council spokesman Jamie Angus said: "This intervention by the Secretary of State takes the decision out of the Planning Inspectorate's hands."