The Council’s commitment to deliver a Gypsy and Traveller site on land next to Lower Bristol Road is nearly completed, with the site due to be finished soon.
The new site, known as Carrswood View, is due to be finished by the end of the financial year, and the Council say it is within budget.
The Council and Elim Housing, the Council’s partner in delivering and managing the site, organised a viewing for key partners on 17th March, including Julian House, Avon & Somerset Police and The Big Issue.
Delivering the site will provide a range of benefits for residents and the wider community, including:
- A positive impact on the lives of site residents, particularly children, who will be able to live in modern sanitary conditions, attend school and receive health care.
- Improve the Council’s ability to evict future illegal encampments in the district;
- Contribute to the formal adoption of the area Core Strategy, thus reducing the threat of unwanted and inappropriate housing developments.
Cllr Tim Ball (Lid-Dem, Twerton), Cabinet Member for Homes & Planning, said: “I am delighted that after many years of trying, this Council has finally been able, and with the help of Government funding, to provide a permanent Gypsy and Traveller site.
“This will have a huge impact on the health and welfare of the residents and importantly have many other wider benefits for the Council and the community.”
Chief Executive of Elim Housing, Alistair Allender, said: “Elim is extremely pleased to report that Carrswood View Site will soon be complete and ready to provide eight new permanent pitches for families from the Gypsy and Traveller Community in addition to five transit pitches.
“We are looking forward to welcoming our first residents onto the site in April 2015, and will continue to work closely with Bath & North East Somerset Council and other statutory and local agencies to ensure that Carrswood View is a well-managed, pleasant and safe place to live.
“We are also sensitive to the needs of the nearby settled community and local businesses, and welcome any queries they may have.”
Commenting on the Council’s statement that the new traveller site ‘on time and on budget’, Councillor Tim Warren said: “It’s quite something for the Council to claim a project is ‘within budget’ but then not state what figure that budget actually is.
“In total, when you add in all the planning costs and highway works, this 13-pitch traveller site is costing taxpayers’ more than £2 million to build.
“This surely has to be one of the most expensive traveller sites in the whole country for the number of pitches it contains.
“What’s even more extraordinary is the deal that the Lib Dems have agreed with the contractor – which means that the taxpayer has paid all the cost of building the site, but will keep none of the rent collected.
“Instead, all the rent collected will all go to the contractor, and if two pitches remain unoccupied for more than a year, then Council will have to cough-up half of the rent.
“The way this project has been mismanaged by the Lib Dems has to be one of the most costly and embarrassing episodes B&NES has witnessed since the Spa debacle.”
