Gipsy camp to get £2m upgrade as travelling community grows

A COUNCIL has announced plans for the £2m upgrade of a travellers’ site in Cottingham.

East Riding Council has secured Government funding for the refurbishment of the site in Wood-hill Way and is expected to submit a planning application by the middle of next month.

The work would see the creation of an additional pitch, the replacement of all utility blocks on the site and improvements to the waste water system.

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The council said a temporary site will be created near Skidby roundabout to accommodate the travellers while the work is carried out. Work could begin in November and is expected to last just over a year.

The extra pitch would go a small way towards meeting the needs of the traveller community identified in a Gypsy, Traveller, and Travelling Showpeople Accommodation Assessment published by the authority last year, which outlines expected requirements over the next 16 years.

This includes consultation with 85 resident households, representing 64 per cent of the gipsy and traveller households in the borough.

The study estimates that there are almost 500 travellers living in the East Riding and that most have lived in the area for more than ten years, with many being born in the borough or having strong family links to it. A total of 96 per cent of those who took part in the survey were Romany gipsies.

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Research from the Equalities and Human Rights Commission suggests about 6,000 new pitches for gipsies and travellers are needed “immediately” in England.

The council’s report says that if only one of its three managed sites is extended, all will be at capacity and new sites will be needed.

It suggests 21 new pitches will be required, but that the maximum per site should be 15, with two new sites are therefore needed.

The report says the new sites should be located between Cottingham and Beverley, and between Bridlington and Driffield. It also suggest a small number of pitches may also be needed in South Holderness, given the size of the traveller community there.

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The report concludes: “Addressing the accommodation needs of Gypsies, Travellers and Travelling Showpeople is the shortest and quickest route to helping to ensure positive outcomes for members of this population.

“Research has shown that a lack of suitable accommodation and poor conditions is related to poor educational [sic] and health, as well as being at the root of ill-felling between the non-Traveller community and Gypsies and Travellers.

“In addition, addressing accommodation will, in the short and long-term, reduce the costs of maintaining the process that surrounds unauthorised encampments and developments and help achieve additional revenue where socially rented sites are developed.

“Permanent solutions will offer the best chance for positive outcomes for all concerned and create a platform where greater engagement and cohesion can be fostered and developed.”

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Three years ago, the Government funded a £1.2m extension and overhaul of a gipsy and traveller camp in Eppleworth Road, Cottingham.

The site was doubled in size to accommodate 20 pitches with a series of improvements to improve the quality of life of its residents.

The council said the 30-year-old camp was “no longer fit for purpose”, while a local councillor described conditions at the site as “ghastly”.

The then Cottingham South ward councillor Katrin McClure, a Liberal Democrat, said: “There is one toilet shared by ten families and no hot water. It’s awful, it’s ghastly, you wouldn’t build ten council houses and put one toilet between them.”

The council will provide more information on the new proposals at a drop-in session on Thursday at Cottingham Methodist Church, Hallgate, from 3.30pm to 7.30pm.

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