A plan for a permanent gypsy/Traveller site in Kinross-shire is to be debated by councillors this week.
The application under consideration is for five permanent pitches, partly in retrospect, at Crook Moss, Crook of Devon, along with road access improvements and landscaping and tree planting.
The site, which is owned by the applicants, is a former council tip, though tipping ceased some years ago. Work has already been carried out on the access road and caravans placed on the site, to the anger of some local people.
A report to the development management committee, which will meet on Wednesday, states the council’s planning enforcement team was first contacted in May 2010, when travellers started using the site.
More than 40 letters of objection have been received, with claims made that the site is contaminated, a traveller site is not compatible with surrounding land use and the site is prone to flooding. Other grounds of objection include that it will result in a loss of amenity to the community, that the nursery and primary school has no capacity and there will be a loss of trees.
The report to the committee states that there are no objections from SEPA, Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust or the council’s environmental health officers.
The education department had confirmed there is insufficient capacity available at Fossoway Primary School to accommodate the development and any children of primary school age would need to go to the nearest available school with sufficient capacity.
Noise complaints have been made by resident as a result of a generator being used but it is the intention of the applicants to connect to mains electricity.
Recommending approval, development quality manager Nick Brian concedes there have been a “significant number of objections to this partly retrospective proposal”.
However, he says that in the light of there being no objections from the main statutory environmental consultees, and a need for the pitches, the plan is acceptable.