Council announces Gypsy and Traveller issues and options consultation

South Norfolk Council has begun a consultation with the community on its issues and options for providing suitable sites for Gypsies and Travellers.

In its Gypsy and Traveller Local Development Document, Issues and Options Paper, the Council sets out 40 pages of detailed information, and more especially, suggested criteria for what makes a suitable site.

An essential accompanying document asks 20 questions about that Issues and Options Paper, and it is the responses to these questions which will eventually help it formulate its preferred strategy. That strategy, published in the summer, will include identified sites.

The Council is also interested in comments on:

- tenure, or whether sites should be provided by, for example, councils, housing associations or Gypsies and Travellers themselves;

- affordability, or how much Gypsies and Travellers should pay for the sites

- design and management of sites.

Ultimately, the Council is looking for 4 small permanent sites of between 6 and 8 caravan pitches, plus 3 transit sites.

There will be four exhibition events in the district in mid May which are also part of the consultation.

South Norfolk Council Planning Policy Manager Alan Gomm said:

"Our goal is to bring our settled and Gypsy and Traveller communities closer together because we hope providing more suitable sites will end the need to use unauthorised sites. We hope to make decisions about site choices more obvious and transparent. And we hope to improve health and education opportunities for Gypsies and Travellers.

"This consultation is obviously very important, and after it is over, we will have the criteria that our consultees and others agree make up a suitable site for Gypsies and Travellers in South Norfolk. Then we can begin our search for sites. "We are consulting with Gypsies and Travellers, as well as with all our parish and town councils and those immediately adjoining the district."

He urged people to get involved:

"Now is the time for people to get involved - the pivotal moment when site criteria are being examined, debated and decided.

"Don't wait until a site is identified and announced because that site will have been chosen using criteria agreed in this consultation. It will have the full weight of a statutory process behind it."

The consultation runs from 16 April until 8 June.

Between 17 and 24 May, the Council will be holding four public exhibitions of the consultation and other material starting at 10am and finishing at 6pm. Each evening from 7pm to 9pm at each venue, invited local experts will discuss key issues that have arisen during the day. The events are being held at:

17 May: Broome Village Hall, Sun Road 21 May: Easton Village Hall, Marlingford Road 22 May: Diss Corn Hall 24 May: Wymondham Central Hall.

The four venues chosen are not necessarily where Gypsy and Traveller sites will eventually be situated. They were chosen because they are in the priority search area corridors, identified by the council's Gypsy and Traveller Needs Survey, which can also be found on the Council's website.

Anyone wanting to get involved in the consultation can find the documents online at www.south-norfolk.gov.uk/LDF. Anyone unable to complete the consultation online, can contact South Norfolk Council at 01508 533805.

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