Regulation 19 Rutland Local Plan
Gypsies, Travellers and Travelling Showpeople
Government Planning Policy for Traveller Sites (2015) (PPTS) states that local planning authorities should make their own assessment of the need for sites and that Local Plans should include fair, realistic and inclusive policies. They should set pitch targets for Gypsies and Travellers and plot targets for Travelling Showpeople, setting a 5-year supply of deliverable sites and identifying a longer-term supply of developable sites or broad locations for growth.
What will the policy do?
The policy sets out the level of need for Gypsies and Traveller sites and for Travelling Show People sites, as evidenced in the GTTSAA and allocates specific sites to help meet the need. As these sites will not meet the full level of known need the policy also provides criteria against which planning applications for new sites or new plots and pitches to be assessed.
As part of the consultation process for this draft Local Plan, we are calling for the submission of further suitable sites for Gypsies, Travellers or Travelling Showpeople for consideration for allocation due to limited choice and potential suitability of sites submitted to date.
Policy H10 – Meeting the needs of Gypsies, Travellers and Travelling Showpeople Comment
The Council will seek to meet the need identified in the latest Gypsy, Traveller, and Travelling Showpeople Accommodation Assessment (GTTSAA) for the period 2021-2041:
- 16 pitches for Gypsies and Travellers
- 33 plots for Travelling Showpeople (of which there is already a consent granted for 7 plots)
Specific allocations to meet the identified need are proposed below and shown on the Policies Map:
Gypsy and Traveller Accommodation:
H10.1 The Paddocks site at Langham – modest-scale use of land at or adjacent to the existing site, of a size to be confirmed through the Local Plan and/or development management process, aimed at the families of existing residents;
Travelling Showpeople Accommodation:
- Five Counties extension, Greetham – 28 plots, to be safeguarded for Travelling Showpeople for the plan period, with the allocation of Area (1) (already partly consented) confirmed and with Areas (2) and (3) to be allocated as reserve sites, preferred in that order.
H10.2 Area 1 Five Counties Extension
H10.3 Area 2 Five Counties Extension
H10.4 Area 3 Five Counties Extension
Additional provision will be delivered through safeguarding authorised sites (including potential extensions) and policy compliant extensions to existing sites.
Proposals for sites for Gypsy and Traveller and/or Travelling Showpeople which meet identified need within the County will be permitted provided that:
- in the case of permanent sites, there is reasonable and convenient access to schools, medical services, shops, and other community facilities;
- the site is well located and provides safe and convenient vehicular, pedestrian and cycle access and will not result in a level of traffic generation which is inappropriate for roads in the area;
- the impact on heritage assets, landscape character and/or sites/areas of nature conservation value including the internationally designated nature conservation site of Rutland Water is minimised;
- the site provides adequate on-site facilities for parking, storage, play and residential amenity (including basic essential services);
- the site is not visually intrusive;
- adequate levels of privacy and residential amenity for occupiers and adjacent occupiers will be provided;
- site shall normally only be occupied by households who meet the planning definition of Gypsies, Travellers or Travelling Showpeople, or those who met the definition when they first moved onto the site and who still remain within the definition afterwards, except that subsequently they may give up travelling permanently for welfare reasons; and
- no significant barriers to development exist in terms of flooding, poor drainage, poor ground stability or proximity to other hazardous land or installation where other forms of housing would not be suitable;
Further future provision is proposed to be made on the Future Opportunity Areas at St George's Barracks and Woolfox (Policy SS4). This will be secured in an early review of the Local Plan or through the preparation of a separate Development Plan Document.
Why is this policy needed?
The Council has published (in 2023) a new assessment of the accommodation needs of Gypsy, Traveller and Travelling Showpeople (GTTSAA) in its area. There are families within the study area who would like to increase the number of pitches and plots and/or number of caravans allowed per pitch or plot on existing site/yards and consider that the expansion of sites with adequate space would contribute towards meeting existing need. The report concluded that there is an overall shortfall in Rutland over the next 20 years of some 16 residential pitches for Gypsies and Travellers and 33 plots for Travelling Showpeople. The need for 33 plots does not take account of 7 additional plots allowed in 2024 as an extension to an existing site to meet their need.
Given the future need in Rutland arises from the growth of existing families that are already resident in the County, the Council's approach will be to respond to those needs where they arise through proposed allocation, the extension of existing sites together with any suitable policy compliant application should be considered before new sites are allocated. The Council will work with stakeholders to ensure that this need is met. Therefore, the broad locations for future residential Gypsy and Traveller sites in Rutland should reflect the existing location of sites and the nearest most sustainable settlements.
The proposals set out in the plan to undertake a separate Development Plan Document for the two Future Opportunity Areas (Policy SS4) will provide an opportunity to address future need for Gypsy and Traveller pitches and plots for Travelling Showpeople.
The Council has previously adopted a criteria-based policy towards sites for Gypsies and Travellers and this had been successful in ensuring that sufficient sites have come forward to meet the previous need for sites for Gypsies and Travellers that had been identified. The Council works with the Multi-Agency Traveller Unit (MATU) in Leicester to support the travelling communities within the County. Evidence from MATU suggests that much of the current need for pitches and plots in Rutland arises from the need to accommodate existing families and may be better met through extension to existing sites or on new sites of sufficient size to accommodate the whole family. MATU, from interaction with families, are of the view that much of the identified need for plots for Showpeople are from family members who are not intending to join the family business. MATU's canvassing of residents regarding an appetite for an expansion of further plots found that they were not currently in a position to bring forward a further significant extension of the site, beyond the 5 plots already authorised in 2023. As such, it is likely that the some of the need for Gypsies and Travellers and Travelling Showpeople will be met through planning applications in due course.
The purpose of Policy H10 is to set out proposed allocations and a criteria-based policy for use in the assessment of other potential sites to address identified accommodation needs.
Supporting Evidence
Planning Policy for Traveller Sites (2015)
Rutland County Council Gypsy, Traveller, and Travelling Showpeople Accommodation Assessment (GTTSAA) (March 2023)
