PEOPLE living near a field earmarked for a travellers’ site are calling on the local community to make their voices heard.
Residents in Wickwar and Rangeworthy are urging people to show their anger at the plans by turning up to a site inspection next month.
Hundreds of locals have objected to the proposals for a five-pitch caravan site at Homefield, on Hall End Lane, but it is feared many people feel South Gloucestershire Council has already made its mind up.
A spokesman for the Hall End Action Group, which was set up at the end of last year after landowner Colin Morgan and his family submitted the plans, said: "We can’t help thinking that as this hamlet is so sparsely populated the council sees this as an easy hit.
"This is a very rural, isolated farming hamlet set in narrow country lanes with very limited essential services."
The land, which lies between Wickwar and Rangeworthy and is used predominantly by horseriders and cyclists, has a long history with the council’s planning department.
In 2003, Mr Morgan was taken to the High Court by the authority’s enforcement team and ordered to remove one caravan from the field. Planning officials at the council now look set to recommend that the plans for five mobile homes are approved.
"The reasons for refusal (in the previous case) seem to have been completely set aside although no changes have been made to the planning policies that govern the area," added the action group spokesman.
"The only change seems to have been a very stern warning from central Government for South Gloucestershire planners to get their house in order and allocate gypsy and traveller sites."
Last year, the council was given a Government directive to find 53 residential pitches for travellers and 25 transit sites. A public consultation was carried out and is now being assessed.
The Hall End Action Group will be turning out in force to the sites inspection meeting on Friday, June 12 (9.30am) and a meeting of the council’s development control (east) committee at Kingswood Civic Centre on Thursday, June 25 (2.30pm) when the application will be decided.
A spokeswoman for the council said no decisions had been made on the plans.
She added: "A decision has not yet been made, and will be only be made by elected members in a public meeting once they have considered all the information."
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