(Time: 3.40pm to 3.42pm)
The Executive received and considered report 98/08 of the Deputy Director (Planning and Community Strategy). The South East England Regional Assembly (SEERA) was undertaking a partial review of the South East Plan on the provision of sites for gypsies and travellers. Councils were asked to submit their advice on the expected numbers and distribution of sites in their areas. In Oxfordshire a county-wide steering group had recalculated the need for the county to 2016 which was 42 pitches. The response of this Council had been agreed at a meeting of the Executive on 5 October 2007.
SEERA was now undertaking consultation on four options for pitch provision for long term occupation, transit spaces and travelling showpeople. The Strategic and Local Planning Advisory Group had met on 6 October 2008 to consider these options and made recommendations that were set out in the report.
The Executive concluded that, as the Council had made provision in the past to fully meet the requirement for gypsy sites and meet ‘designation’, it should not accept more than its share as there was no justified need to do so. Therefore, Members expressed a preference for option A rather than the remaining options which made provision for more sites than necessary.
RESOLVED
(a) that the suggested overall provision of 42 gypsy and traveller pitches in Oxfordshire and provision for the Vale of 1 pitch under option A be supported;
(b) that the redistribution of gypsy and traveller pitches across the region under option B be opposed and the partial redistribution in options C and D be opposed as being arbitrary, not supported by evidence and unsustainable;
(c) that the consultation’s transit site provision for Oxfordshire be supported and that SEERA be requested to clarify the basis for the local distribution of sites and how the provision relates to the translation of transit provision into new sites in the Gypsy Traveller Accommodation Assessment;
(d) that the overall provision of seven travelling showpeople plots across Oxfordshire and the distributions under options A and B be supported, with a preference for A;
(e) that the redistribution of travelling showpeople plots across the region under options C and D be opposed as being arbitrary, not supported by evidence and unsustainable; and
(f) that SEERA be requested to closely examine the information presented by the Guild of Travelling Showmen to support the provision for 42 homeless families and take into account their needs in the distribution of provision.