Council rejects its own plan for travellers’ site

Around 50 residents of Burn attended a Selby Council planning committee which voted seven to four to reject the scheme.

A 71-page planning report written by the authority’s lead planning officer, Richard Sunter, had urged councillors to back the scheme, which would have created 15 pitches on a parcel of land close to the runway at Burn airfield and adjacent to an existing 12-pitch site for travellers.

The planning committee heard that caravan residents of the existing site were not in favour of the application.

Last night Burn Parish Council chairman, Chris Phillipson, said: “We are absolutely delighted that justice has been done and the planning committee saw through the officer’s report and saw that it wasn’t a suitable location.”

Around 200 letters of objection were received by the authority.

Councillor Phillipson said the application, had it been passed, would have created the third largest site for travellers in Yorkshire after Leeds and Wakefield.

The parish council claimed Selby Council’s selection process to find a site for travellers was flawed and that Burn was not on the original “preferred list”.

Last night it was not clear what Selby Council’s next move might be.

It could opt to put forward a revised scheme for the same site at Burn or look for alternative site. The authority could appeal against the decision but this is considered to be unlikely.