Latest news with #SueHobson
BBC News
26-06-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Rowsley car park traveller plan rejected by council
Plans for a council traveller site in a Derbyshire town have been rejected after facing opposition from residents and other local Tuesday, Derbyshire Dales District Council opted to reject its own application for a temporary two-year plot on the Old Station Close car park in highlighted the reduction in parking spaces, impact on a disabled arts charity and its users, disruption to residents and businesses and the effect on a neighbouring cycle followed nearly 100 objections from residents filed to the council, along with opposition from Derbyshire county and Rowsley parish councils. Legal challenge The planning application had followed a district council approval in December to allocate temporary two-year traveller sites for specific families for parts of the year – with Rowsley only to be used between March and Hobson, former district council leader, said she "strongly" objected to the plans and she had made formal complaints to the authority over what she felt had been a "flawed process".She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service there would have been a legal challenge made to the council if the plans had been Hobson said there had been a failure to properly assess equality and that the scheme represented a "travesty of planning and a betrayal of the people of Rowsley". Kerry Andrews, director of the neighbouring Level Arts Centre for disabled artists, claimed there was "ingrained ableism and discrimination" demonstrated by the whose children use the centre said it needed protection to retain its viability and community benefit, with concerns over the lack of essential parking for disabled Gibbs, an objecting resident, said his newly opened flour business could have been at risk of closing if the plans were approved, after takings were halved when part of the car park was used by Severn Trent earlier this year. John Youatt, a campaigner and planning consultant who has advocated for housing travellers on an approved site known as the Woodyard, near Cromford, claimed travellers had been "discriminated against for 15 years".Steve Buffery, strategic planning manager for the county council, said the plot was not suitable for a traveller site, citing its proximity to a cycling and walking route and the potential perception they would be "isolated" and "segregated" from the surrounding Simmonds, interim development manager for the district council, said the "perfect" traveller site did not exist and that this plot would have provided temporary relief for some of the district's needs.
BBC News
15-05-2025
- General
- BBC News
Traveller site at Matlock railway station car park approved
Plans to turn a makeshift traveller site in a railway station car park into a formal temporary plot have been approved by of the Matlock railway station car park off Derwent Way was one of four sites earmarked for temporary use last plot – which is already in use and has been for years – would be restricted to use only by a specific homeless traveller family for whom the council has a legal obligation, and only for a maximum of two approved the formal decision at a Derbyshire Dales District Council meeting on Tuesday. The Local Democracy Reporting Service said the railway station site will have space for four caravans and six vehicles and be barred from hosting commercial activity, with councillors also backing a requirement for a site management Hobson, a district and county councillor, told the meeting the site was "wholly unsuitable" and questioned the "credibility" of a temporary designation "when the family have been there for years".However, fellow county and district representative Sue Burfoot said the two-year window "is reasonable", and praised Matlock residents for being "very tolerant"."There have been issues in the past but they have been dealt with very professionally by the team at the district council," she said."No car park is ideal as a traveller site. None of us are saying that a car park is a suitable site for a traveller site but we are where we are."We have gone through two administrations where we have failed to find a permanent site and there is an identified need for a family for which we have a homeless obligation in law. We cannot get away from that."
