To receive any apologies for absence

None received

To receive any declarations of interest

None received.

To consider the Part I minutes of the meeting held on 13 October 2016

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the minutes of the meeting held on 13 October 2016 be approved.

To consider the above report

Members considered the unauthorised Traveller development at Shurlock Road, Waltham St Lawrence.

The Chairman of the Planning & Housing Overview & Scrutiny Panel had agreed to the report being added to the agenda as it had not previously been listed on the Forward Plan.  

The Mayor had agreed to a waiver of the call-in process as anydelay likely to be caused by the call-in process would seriously prejudice the Council’s or the public’s interests.

Councillor Cox confirmed he was not sitting on the Panel as he was in attendance in his capacity as Ward Councillor. He confirmed that Cllr Derek Wilson was attending as his substitute.

Members agreed to move part of the discussion into Part II following the Legal Officer’s advice after he had received representations from the occupants of the unauthorised Traveller development’s solicitor.

Cllr D. Wilson gave Members of the sub Committee a brief history of the site at Shurlock Road and stated that the unauthorised Travellers site had been present since December 2009. Following various legal challenges, the occupiers had tried to obtain permission to stay on the site. Temporary permission was granted for Mrs Eastwood to remain on site with planning applications for five other plots dismissed at appeal. Cllr D. Wilson explained that as the site had been occupied since 2009, the Council had given appropriate time for the travellers to move from the site  and that if the Sub committee decided to take appropriate action, then they would be given 48 hours notice that the Borough would be evicting them.

Victoria Goldberg, Team Manager – Enforcement confirmed that approximately £160k had been spent so far trying to remove the Travellers from the site. The Chairman stated that once the Travellers had been moved, the costs would be in the region of £280k. Cllr d. Wilson confirmed that after the site was vacated, the site would need clearing and the contract was to restore the site back to grass land. The restoration was included in the costs.

The Legal Officer stated he had received late representations in the last hour on behalf of the occupants; he handed copies of the representations to the Sub Committee and highlighted the main key points.

The Team Manager for Enforcement confirmed that the 20 school children at the site would continue to be educated by the Borough if they remained within the Borough’s boundary. Some of the children were home schooled, but for the ones that were not, as long as the families remained within the Borough, the Council would be liable for their home to school transport costs if Admissions were unable to find them suitable spaces at schools local to where they were residing. Arron Hitchen, Senior Enforcement Officer directed Members to page 45, points five and six where the information was confirmed. The Chairman stated that he would prefer the Royal Borough to pay the costs of travel to school so that the children had continuity of education, as long as they remained within the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting whilst discussion takes place on item 6 on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 1-7 of part I of Schedule 12A of the Act

To receive the Part II appendices to the earlier Part I report