Traveller camp near Desborough given green light

Kettering planning committee gave the go-ahead last night (July 3) for the Holland family to set up a permanent base for five traveller caravans on the 1,500 sq metre site located between the A6 and Braybrooke Road.

The land was part of the Braybrooke Road before the A6 was built and is close to other existing traveller pitches at Spinney Close.

It was gifted to the family by Northamptonshire County Council, which along with other local authorities has a duty to provide support to travellers to help foster good relations between communities.

The camp, which will have seven parking spaces, was opposed by neighbouring landowner Jennifer Hill who said the travellers ‘just cause chaos’.

She said: “For the past two years these people have been parked on the land illegally.

“I don’t object to there being a traveller site in the area but I don’t think that it should be on this land.”

Planning officer Peter Chaplain said there was no legal reason for planning officers to object against the proposal and that an issue about access to land was a civil matter and not for the planning committee to decide upon.

He also said that the Northamptonshire local authorities had not been able to identify a five year supply of traveller sites which is a policy under the national planning policy framework.

The planning permission has been granted with a number of conditions including that there shall only be one family on the site and the land shall not be used for business activity.

Desborough Town Council supported the application, however the highways authority objected saying that ‘no details regarding turning for the largest vehicles likely to use the site have been detailed’.

Five members of the planning committee voted for the application.

One member abstained.