More time to comment on North Dorset Gypsy site bid (From Thisisdorset)

More time to comment on North Dorset Gypsy site bid

7:00pm Thursday 11th March 2010 in

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CABINET bosses at North Dorset District Council have granted extra time in a public consultation on potential locations for a travellers’ site.

The extension follows protests from people in Shaftesbury about the council’s preferred site on land south of the A30, to the east of the town.

Ann Brooks, whose Salisbury Road home overlooks the field in which an eight-pitch site is proposed, queried why it was the only one under consideration.

But council managers insisted that their site appraisal included publicly owned land across the district, and were waiting for information from County Hall about the availability of two tenanted farms.

Public meetings have been promised to people in Shaftesbury. Councillors on the policy review commi-ttee will consider the draft Site Options Appraisal after calling in an earlier cabinet decision.

The government’s housing blueprint – the draft Regional Spatial Strategy – has proposed 37 perma-nent pitches and 20 transit pitches for North Dorset by 2011.