Deputy Prime Minister rejects Charmy Down Travellers' Site application

5.52.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 22nd Jun 2005

Bath's MP, Don Foster, has welcomed the Adjudication from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) which has refused an appeal by the travellers against the decision by the Council to decline planning permission for a travellers' site at Charmy Down.

Commenting, Don, who backed the Charmy Down residents and lobbied the ODPM on their behalf, said

"The Charmy Down residents have had to put up with a lot and they fought an excellent campaign against this appeal.

"The strong language of this adjudication indicates the unsuitability of this particular site and it is now up to the Council to enforce this decision.

"The large number of similar cases of illegal traveller sites across the country indicates the short-sightedness of Michael Howard's decision, made when he was in Government, to remove the obligation from local authorities to provide traveller sites.

"The Government really need to seriously look at the length of time that resolving these disputes can take."