Council defers decision on Gypsy site

South Norfolk Council’s Cabinet has today agreed to postpone any decision to make available a site for Gypsies at Harleston.

Gypsy families currently living at an unlawful site in Denton had been granted planning permission for a Gypsy site on council-owned land at Rushall Road for a temporary period of three years.

At today’s Cabinet, Councillors were to have considered whether to make the site available for that purpose.

However, Norfolk County Council’s Highways Department has told the council that it is investigating the status of its own highways advice, which it gave to South Norfolk Council’s Planning Committee when planning permission was approved in September Cabinet has accepted advice from its solicitor Stuart Shortman that the correctness or otherwise of that Highways advice to the Planning Committee should be resolved before any further decisions are taken.

Councillors hope that Norfolk County Council’s Highways Department will complete its investigation in time for the next meeting of Cabinet on December 4.

Council Leader Vivienne Clifford-Jackson said:

“We have a duty to act in a legal and responsible manner, so that if there is any doubt about advice informing any decision we make, it is clarified and acted upon.

“Like everyone else, we must now wait until Norfolk County Council Highways Department has investigated whether its own advice to our Planning Committee was correct or not.

“We urge the County Council to complete its investigation quickly for the sake of everyone involved.”

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