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Background to the Scott Wilson Northern & Eastern Hertfordshire Gypsy and Traveller Site Scoping Report
Introduction
Broxbourne Borough, East Herts District, North Hertfordshire District, Stevenage Borough, Welwyn Hatfield Borough and Hertfordshire County Councils have jointly commissioned a Gypsy and Traveller Site Scoping Report. This report has now been published and provides the partners with a detailed and robust analysis of suitable sites with potential for the accommodation of gypsies and travellers.
This work follows the completion of an assessment of the accommodation needs for gypsy and traveller pitches within the five districts.
Background
Planning Circular, 01/06 ‘Planning for Gypsy and Traveller Caravan Sites’ was issued by the Government in February 2006 and replaced the previous Circular 01/94. Evidence shows that the previous Circular had failed to help deliver adequate sites for gypsies and travellers in many areas of England.
The newer Circular states that the assessment of the accommodation needs of gypsies and travellers is integral to the assessment of general accommodation needs. Such assessments are required to be carried out by both the Housing Act 2004 and the Circular, to inform a local authority’s housing strategy and the preparation of the Development Plan at both regional and local levels.
The Circular also states that local authorities in their Site Allocation Development Plan Documents must allocate sufficient sites for gypsy and travellers to meet the requirement identified in the Regional Spatial Strategy. Local Authorities will have to demonstrate that sites are both suitable and available.
Following on the successful example of joint working in South West Hertfordshire, which was undertaken to enable the completion of an Assessment of the Accommodation Needs of Gypsies and Travellers (GTAA) in that area, Broxbourne Borough, East Herts District, North Hertfordshire District, Stevenage Borough, Welwyn Hatfield Borough and Hertfordshire County Councils likewise collaborated to carry out a similar study for the Northern and Eastern areas of Hertfordshire. In June 2005, Opinion Research Services Ltd (ORS) were contracted to undertake the study, which was of a cross-boundary nature, and it also involved joint working arrangements between the Housing and Planning disciplines of all five districts.
Assessment of Need for Gypsy and Traveller Pitches
The final report was received by the Partners in June 2006. It concluded that there is a need for more accommodation for gypsy and travellers in the study area. It recommends that a total of 45 additional pitches will be required in the study area for the period up to 2011; 20 permanent pitches to accommodate those already on the waiting list, 15 permanent pitches to accommodate new household formation from existing households and 10 transit sites to accommodate the need for travelling to and through the study area, on a transit or emergency stop-over site. The Accommodation Assessment further advises that continuing provision for around 15-20 additional pitches every 5 years will need to be made due to household formation over the next 25 years.
The six local authorities agreed to jointly progress a site scoping study on a partnership basis and consultants, Scott Wilson, were appointed in December 2006 and this study has now been published.
This Study
The Site Scoping Study provides a detailed and robust analysis of potentially suitable sites for the accommodation of gypsies and travellers in the partnering authorities to meet the previously identified need. This analysis is vital given the need to ensure that such sites are provided in the districts to meet likely regional government requirements and to ensure that any sites provided are in the most appropriate and sustainable locations, taking into account the needs of both the existing and future gypsy and traveller communities. It is intended that the study will inform the Core Strategies, the Allocations Development Plan Documents, and the Gypsy and Traveller Development Plan Documents (where appropriate) of the new Local Development Frameworks and the Housing Strategies of the partnering authorities. In addition the findings of the study will inform the responses of the districts’ to EERA’S consultation on its review of the Regional Spatial Strategy.
The study has identified 21 areas with potential for the accommodation of gypsy and traveller pitches. In addition 5 existing sites were considered suitable for either expansion within their existing boundaries or extension. In reaching these findings the study has taken account of issues such as distance from services, environmental designations and the Green Belt, as well as site specific criteria.
It should be noted that the final pitch requirement figures that the districts will be expected to provide might not be known for some time. This is because the level of provision eventually assigned to the districts is subject to the finalisation of the East of England Regional Assembly’s (EERA) Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) Single Issue Review to address the provision of Gypsy and Traveller caravan sites in the East of England (see more below). However, the Government encourages local authorities to start making provision in the interim.
Relationship with the RSS Single Issue Review
EERA has stated, in their consultation earlier this year, that the East of England needs 1,220 more caravan pitches for gypsies and travellers by 2011 across the region (45 under option 1 and 77 under option 2 for the Northern and East Herts sub region) and that the shortage of sites has contributed to the problem of unauthorised stays.
The way that the regional requirement figure has been arrived at is that the Accommodation Assessment figures (see paragraph 1.7 above) from all the studies undertaken in the East of England region have been fed to EERA. These studies have then been ‘benchmarked’ by consultants employed by EERA from three eminent universities whose research, ‘Preparing Regional Spatial Strategy reviews on Gypsies and Travellers by regional planning bodies’ that was developed as part of this process, has now become nationally accepted and published as best practice by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG). The figure for permanent pitch provision for Northern & Eastern Hertfordshire has been ‘moderated’ slightly upward on the ORS report.
EERA has recently undertaken a public consultation on the pitch provision issue. This illustrated two possible options, one based on a distribution of the ‘moderated’ GTAA figure and the other based on sharing out some of the needs from areas of highest demand in Essex and Cambridgeshire whereby each district would take at least 15 pitches. More information on the consultation, which closed on July 31 2007, is available on the EERA website at www.eera.gov.uk. Following consideration of the responses, EERA will publish its proposal for the number of pitches required in each council area in spring 2008. Following further public consultation on a revised Draft RSS Single Issue Review, and an Examination in Public by an Independent Panel of Planning Inspectors, the government is due to publish its final decisions in 2009. This document will contain the final figures for pitch provision that each district will need to make.
Next Steps
It is up to each local authority to choose the actual sites for gypsy and traveller provision in their area, following consultation with local communities. It is at this point in the delivery process that the results of the Site Scoping Report will be utilised as a background document to aid districts in the study area choose the most suitable sites to meet their identified needs. Public consultation will take place as part of the Local Development Plan process via the publication of Development Plan Documents, the timescale of which will vary by district according to the provisions of each individual Council’s Local Development Scheme.
Background Report
