New sites to provide accommodation for Travelling Showpeople and Travellers are being put forward by councils in South Worcestershire.
Malvern Hills District, Worcester City and Wychavon councils need to provide 59 Traveller pitches and 8 Travelling Showpeople plots by 2030 to meet demand.
Wychavon needs to provide 37 of these but has already approved 21 since January 2019. Malvern Hills District needs to provide 19 Traveller pitches and 8 Travelling Showpeople plots and Worcester City just over 2 pitches.
The Traveller and Travelling Showpeople Site Allocations Development Plan: Preferred Options document, sets out where some of these sites are proposed to be developed.
They are:
Malvern Hills:
Hillbee Farm, Welland Road, Upton-upon-Severn - 3 pitches
Wychavon:
The Orchard, Knowle Hill, Evesham - 5 pitches
Blossom Hill, Village St, Aldington - 2 pitches
Hughes Barn, Bretforton Road, Badsey - 6 pitches
Worcester City
No sites are currently planned.
This will leave a shortfall across all three council areas to be met through applications coming through the standard planning process.
Finding suitable sites to meet the needs of the Traveller and Travelling Showpeople community has proved difficult.
A call for people to put forward potential sites in October last year resulted in 10 suggestions which were all assessed and considered unsuitable.
Landowners and agents who put forward land as part of the South Worcestershire Development Plan were also contacted, but none wanted their land considered for a Travelller or Travelling Showpeople site.
A seven-week consultation on the document is planned to run from 1 March to 19 April 2021, if approved by all three councils.
Cllr Lucy Hodgson, Chair of the South Worcestershire Development Plan Joint Advisory Panel, said: "It is important we make provision for the Traveller and Travelling Showpeople community not only to make sure they have access to the same services as the settled community, but to reduce the risk of unauthorised or inappropriate sites being developed.
"I'd urge people to read the document in full when it is published, take part in the consultation and make their views known."
More information about the consultation will be published shortly. Visit www.swdevelopmentplan.org or check the local press for details.
