Holbeach site can be bought for travellers
WORK to create a gypsy and travellers site in Holbeach will progress after Lincolnshire County Council withdrew its opposition to a compulsory purchase order.
The county council, which owns the land, did not want to sell the patch at Northons Lane to South Holland District Council and had opposed its plans for the site which included ten pitches, each to accommodate up to three caravans.
It offered an alternative site at Stockwell Gate, which was rejected because it was too far from the nearest settlement and has poor road access.
The district council then applied for a compulsory purchase order, which the county authority said it would oppose.
But after researching the district council's initial selection process the county council withdrew its objection, meaning an inquiry will not go ahead and the order is likely to be confirmed in a few weeks.
Lincolnshire County Council head of strategic asset management Jim Hogg said: "Following Lincolnshire County Council's objections and South Holland District Council commencing a compulsory purchase order for the site, senior staff and councillors instructed a firm of specialist lawyers to examine the site selection process to determine if we had any grounds to oppose the order.
"It concluded that none of the other sites considered out-performed the Northons Lane site in any substantial respect and that our objection was unlikely to succeed.
"Although Lincolnshire County Council was disappointed with this finding, it was recognised that we had considered all available options to the council and that we could not take the matter any further and therefore withdrew our objection."
l District council officers are still looking for suitable areas for another camp to replace the site off the A16 at Spalding Marsh, which was rejected by the council's development control committee for a second time in April this year.
The council will not be looking at any of the five that were not chosen from 2007's shortlist of eight, but a council spokesman could not confirm any more details.
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Weather for Spalding
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 11 C to 18 C
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