Plans for £2m purpose-built council-run site for Gypsy Travellers in Perth and Kinross approved

Councillors have unanimously approved plans for a £2 million purpose-built council-run stopping site Gypsy Travellers have been waiting 20 years for, at Perth Food and Drink Park.

In a strange twist, Perth and Kinross Council’s (PKC) planning application had been recommended for refusal by its own planning department.

Both PKC’s flooding team and SEPA objected on the grounds of flood risk and the risk to life if people are asleep when flooding occurs.

PKC’s planning and placemaking committee met to consider the application on Wednesday, June 10, at the end of what PKC’s equalities lead Peter Barrett described as “a painfully slow process”.

North Muirton Industrial Park has been used by Gypsy Travellers for decades. Moving the plans for approval, Planning and Placemaking Committee convener Ian Massie argued it would make the site safer for them to use with flood protection measures in place.

The 18-hectare site will accommodate ten caravans in hardstanding pitches 10m apart from one another. There will be a communal building with showers, toilets and an office, as well as an electric vehicle (EV) charging point and bins.

It is understood that managing the site will allow PKC more power to move people on faster. According to PKC’s strategic lead for Housing and Communities, Elaine Ritchie, Gypsy Travellers will stay for a maximum of up to three months.

Back in January 2023, PKC’s Housing and Social Wellbeing Committee unanimously agreed to progress plans to create a managed site for Gypsy Travellers at Perth’s Food and Drink Park. The council expected the site to have “minimal impact on the existing users and future sites” due to it being right on the edge of the business park.

The proposal was rubberstamped at a special council meeting in March 2023, and £2 million was set aside for the project.

According to this week’s planning report, since then, council officers have been “identifying suitable locations for the delivery of such a facility, that meets the needs of the council, and the gypsy/traveller community”. And the site identified was the one originally agreed by PKC’s Housing and Social Wellbeing Committee in January 2023 – at Perth Food and Drink Park.

Development management team leader Paul Williamson at this week’s meeting: “Unfortunately, development of the Food and Drink Park has not had the uptake originally hoped for, and wider consideration, such as the regular use of the area by the Gypsy Traveller community, brought part of the overall site into consideration for that purpose.”

He told councillors their recommendation for refusal “had not been an easy decision to reach”.

Mr Williamson said: “While there is an undoubted need for a transit site, which has been justified, it is the issue of siting and risk, which has been the determining factor, reinforced by the input of SEPA [Scottish Environment Protection Agency] and Flooding colleagues.”

SEPA objected, in principle, because the proposal may put people or property at risk of flooding. The council’s flooding team objected because there was “an inherent risk to life” if the site was used for accommodation rather than for employment use, which the site had been allocated for in the Local Development Plan.

Addressing the committee, PKC’s equalities lead Peter Barrett told councillors he was “very disappointed” with planning officers’ recommendation to refuse the application.

He said an “extensive site selection process” had been undertaken and added: “Every piece of land that the council owns has been considered as to whether it was suitable for development as a transit site.

“Realistically, there is no other site; this site is acceptable to travellers who have been engaged in the consultation. There hasn’t been a single objection from members of the public to this proposal.

“The council has failed to deliver on the members’ decision to build a transit site for 20 years. Flood risks can be mitigated.”

He added: “Users of the transit site are mobile and can evacuate the site quickly. The operation of the site can be managed if faced with high flood risk. I implore you to look at this from a practical and not a perfectionist point of view.

“We need action and a decision today, not vague offerings of further site search activity and a Local Development Plan (LDP) review when the LDP hasn’t ever allocated land for a Gypsy Traveller site.”

Arguing for approval, PKC’s strategic lead for Housing and Communities, Elaine Ritchie, told councillors the flood risk would be “actively managed” with safeguards in place including sustainable urban drainage systems (SuDS), surface water management systems, early warning arrangements – including an alarm – and a detailed evacuation plan.

PKC’s housing chief added: “The lack of realistic alternatives and the risk of refusal perpetuates unmanaged and unauthorised encampments elsewhere”

Ms Ritchie said there was a “pressing and well-evidenced need for lawful transit provision in Perth” and stressed the “clear duty” PKC had to assess needs and make appropriate provision for this protected ethnic group.

Moving the plans for approval, SNP councillor Ian Massie, who convenes the committee, said: “Gypsy Travellers have been taking unauthorised occupation of this land at Arran Road for many years, and this is a situation that the Housing service and Legal and Governance have been unable to prevent.

“That tells me that whatever the outcome of this application, Gypsy Travellers will continue stopping there. If we acknowledge this reality, I consider that it will be better and indeed safer if this land is used with planning consent rather than on an unauthorised basis.”

The committee unanimously voted for approval.

After the meeting, Cllr Peter Barrett described the committee’s decision as “historic” and “a landmark in the council’s provision of improving services and supports for the Gypsy Traveller community – bringing 20 years of waiting to an end”.