What will you do to stop travellers pitching where they like?
Having an authorised site should prevent this from happening in the first place. The introduction of a transit site means that the Police will have greater powers to move on immediately any travellers that pitch elsewhere, and direct them instead to the transit site.
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What happens if the site is full?
Recent experience shows that we have relatively small groups on unauthorised sites, so in the main we suspect that this site (for up to 10 pitches) will be adequate. It could also be the case that for some periods of time the site is not occupied. Our neighbouring Councils should also be providing sites. A network of such sites in the local area should adequately cater for demand.
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What happens if travellers leave the site in a mess, like we’ve seen before, who will clean it up and pay?
An advantage of having a site manager means that this is less likely to happen than on an unauthorised site. Anyone who does behave in this way would not be allowed to use the site in the future.
Remember that at present the Council is spending money on dealing with unauthorised sites – legal costs and clean up costs – and these costs should disappear.
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What will be done if the travellers overstay the maximum time allowed on the transit site?
They will be evicted.
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Where will the site be?
That is yet to be decided, but the Council’s preferred site is close to the Ringwood Road, at Longham.
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Isn’t that land contaminated and too close to pylons?
We are carrying out various environmental tests to check the state of the land. This will help us identify the work required to make sure that any contamination is cleared now and for the future. The costs of dealing with any contamination can be covered as part of the grant from Government to develop the site.
We will also ensure that the site is located an appropriate distance from the pylons.
We can only develop a transit site, like any housing, where it is safe to do so.
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Is it dangerous for local people and walkers if you carry out decontamination work?
No, we would ensure that this does not pose a risk.
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Where else have you considered?
Three other sites were considered – one at Queen’s Road, adjacent to the Wessex Way, another on land by the nursery at Northbourne roundabout and the third near Yeomans Industrial Park.
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Why have these been discounted?
These are not our preferred sites because we feel that the Ringwood Road site more closely matches the CLG criteria. In terms of access and impact on neighbouring residential properties this is the most suitable site.
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What happens now?
We will be consulting with the Gypsy and Traveller community and local residents before making a final decision. Consultation will take the form of open days where we will show the public the plans and listen to their views. The public can also feed their views in through enquiries@bournemouth.gov.uk. Local area forum meetings will be discussing this issue over the next few months.
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When will the site be open?
The timescale is not yet certain. After the investigations and consultation we would need to apply for the funding, secure planning permission and then, assuming both processes are successful, develop the site. When we have more details we will let people know.
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What will the site look like?
We will design the site well and use the experience gained nationally in other successful schemes. We will also consult with those who will use it and those who live locally to make sure it is as attractive, effective and sustainable as possible. Basically, hard standings will be provided and amenity blocks for sanitation. It will in many ways look just like any caravan / mobile home site, of which there are many in the area.
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What about anti social behaviour?
The Council and Police have a range of powers to deal with anti social behaviour which apply to all communities. We will use these powers to tackle any anti social behaviour that arises on the site, as we would in any community.
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And finally…
A recent study has found that of those domestic householders interviewed before and after the creation of a site, most had no specific complaints and many acknowledged that their previous opposition had been groundless.
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