Arun may set Eastergate land aside for gypsies

Gypsy and traveller sites could be permanently opened in Eastergate. Suggested locations for the potentially controversial use are Wyndham Acres and The Paddocks in Northfields Lane as well as Nova Paddocks in Eastergate Lane. Other possible areas have been put forward in the east of the district.

Public consultation about the proposals will be carried out by Arun District Council this monthand next.

A final decision is likely to be made by councillors in March and April. Arun chief executive Ian Sumnall said the debate with nearby residents and their councillors about the suitability of the sites could well be fierce. Arun has to allocate space for travellers and gypsies under planning rules set out by the government.

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The latest guidance is to provide 14 pitches by 2016. A pitch is regarded as having space for a family home and hardstanding for a mobile vehicle.

Consultants hired by the district council scoured the district looking for potentially suitable locations. Some of the suggestions by Baker Associates centre on land, such as that in Eastergate, which has become occupied by gypsies and travellers. There are about eight such locations around the district.

They are either illegal or have temporary planning permission. Mr Sumnall stated many of them could well become permanent after the council's consultation.

"This study has come forward with quite a range of sites. Out of the long list, only one or two of the non-occupied sites need to be picked. That does not make it any easier," he warned Arun's cabinet members at a meeting on December 18.

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Once the sites have become established, in the chosen locations, it will strengthen the council's ability to act against short-term occupations by travellers elsewhere.

Cllr Gill Brown, the council's leader, said: "It's very important that we go ahead with this consultation now.

"We must have the ability to enforce against illegal occupations. The one way to achieve that is to identify these 14 pitches."

A permanent site with 15 pitches has long been established at Ryebank in Middleton. That is unaffected by the latest consultation.

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