Cabinet agrees to progress Gypsies and Travellers development plan consultation

Wiltshire Council's Cabinet has today (Tuesday 13 October) agreed to take forward the council's Gypsies and Travellers Development Plan document, which will help to address the accommodation needs of Wiltshire's travelling communities.

The consultation, which will take place in January and February, will seek engagement with Wiltshire's traveller communities and invite people to have their say on the proposed objectives of the plan. It will also look at travellers' accommodation needs, and how to meet these needs, and will include proposed site assessment criteria. The council is also running a 'call for sites' to identify potential land that may be suitable for new sites.

At the same time, Cabinet made provision for £1.3m of capital budget to fund the delivery of three emergency stopping place sites, which will give the travelling communities more places to stop within Wiltshire and help to prevent illegal encampments.

Cllr Toby Sturgis, Cabinet Member for Planning, said: "This consultation will enable us to develop our draft plan to meet the accommodation needs of our traveller communities up to 2036.

"We will seek people's views on our proposed approach and also ask people to put forward any potential sites that could be suitable for use at some point in the future, though no sites are proposed at present."

When it takes place in early 2021, the Gypsies and Travellers Development Plan consultation will also be aligned with a consultation on the wider Wiltshire Local Plan Review.