Local authority faces judicial review over gypsy site selection process

A local authority is facing judicial review proceedings over its consultation and selection process for gypsy and traveller sites.

The claimants described the process run by Bath & North East Somerset Council (B&NES) as “fundamentally flawed”.

They object to the inclusion of three of the six sites chosen by the council as the preferred options in its Gypsies, Travellers and Travelling Showpeople Site Allocations Development Plan Document.

The sites in question are The Old Colliery in Stanton Wick, the former Infants School Canteen, Bath Old Road, Radstock, and land near to Ellsbridge House, Keynsham.

Lawyers for the claimants wrote to B&NES last month, insisting that the council’s approach had been “unreasonable, irrational, unlawful and procedurally irregular”.

The council’s response under the pre-action protocol has now been described as “wholly unsatisfactory”.

The claim insists that numerous attempts had been made to resolve the issues without litigation, including legal representation and advice to a special council meeting in June and the submission of independent professional planning reports.

More than 1,000 signatures have been submitted on both written and e-petitions.

The claimants argued that B&NES had “failed to remedy the errors made in relation to a number of sites; or provide answers which can explain the seeming irregularity of [their] actions in terms of reasonableness, lawfulness and procedural propriety.”

Clarke Osborne, Chairman of the Stanton Wick Action Group, said: “We believe that the council are in breach of their responsibilities to ensure a proper, fair and open selection process for sites before any detailed consultation is undertaken with the public, and before any commitment is made to the possibility that any site can be developed for this purpose. We have listed no less than 16 areas where we consider the council have failed.”

Osborne added: “We, together with our colleagues in Keynsham and Radstock have gone to great lengths and considerable expense to show the council the errors of this process but at each juncture we have been met with meaningless platitudes and left with many unanswered questions. It is highly regrettable that we have felt the need to resort to this legal challenge but the three groups consider that there is no alternative if we are to ensure that what appears to be a hurried and bungled process is fully exposed and stopped.”

Bath & North East Somerset Council declined to comment specifically on the judicial review.

However, it has announced that – “in response to feedback” – it plans to revise the criteria by which proposed sites are selected for its Gypsy and Traveller Site plan.

Cllr Tim Ball, Cabinet Member for Homes and Planning, said: “As things stand and under these proposed new criteria, I believe it is almost certain that the three sites suggested at Stanton Wick, Ellsbridge House, and Radstock Infant School Canteen will not be included in our final plans.”

A report on possible next steps for the site plan will be considered by the council’s Cabinet on 12 September.

“The Cabinet will take stock of the current situation following the completion of the public consultation of options and the Inspector’s requirement to review the housing requirement of the Draft Core Strategy for the area in response to the new National Planning Policy Framework,” the council said.
 
Bath & North East Somerset said the Cabinet would also consider:

• the public comments arising from the options consultation;
• an ongoing assessment of the six sites previously consulted on including, where appropriate, assessment of highways; habitats; and contaminated land;
• an assessment of new sites suggested through the Call for Sites, including a review of the existing unauthorised Gypsy and Traveller sites;
• review of major development sites, as part of the Core Strategy review, to assess opportunities for gypsies and traveller sites;
• a review of capacity outside the Green Belt, including opportunities for provision in neighbouring local authorities;
• an update to the assessment of need for pitches to establish the level of need for 5 and 10 year supply of sites in accordance with Planning for Traveller Sites;
• ongoing engagement with neighbouring local authorities in accordance with the duty to cooperate.

A call to the public for suggested sites as part of the consultation has put forward 27 possible locations. However, the council stressed that no assessment had been made to consider their suitability.

Philip Hoult