§ Mrs. Ann Wintertonasked the Secretary of State for the Environment how many authorised gipsy sites there are in Cheshire; what the authorised maximum number of residents on these sites is; and what the actual total number of residents is at present.
§ Mr. MacfarlaneAt January 1984 there were three local authority sites in Cheshire, providing a total of 50 pitches. The January count recorded 69 caravans (53 families) on these sites. There were in addition 67 caravans (58 families) on authorised private sites. However, the Department does not collect statistics on the number of individual private sites. The statistics available do not enable reliable estimates to be made of the total numbers of residents occupying sites at any particular time; nor is informtion available on the maximum numbers of residents permitted by the site conditions or licences to occupy sites.
§ Mrs. Ann Wintertonasked the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) if he will give the total number of authorised gipsy sites in England and Wales in each of the years since 1975; and how many of these are designated long-stay or short-stay sites;
(2) if he will give an estimate as to the total number of residents on authorised gipsy sites in each of the years since 1975.
§ Mr. MacfarlaneMy Department has records from 1979 onwards of the number of local authority sites in England. There are a number of authorised private sites for which the Department has records, also from 1979, of the numbers of caravans. The following figures relate to January in each year.
Local Authority Sites Permanent sites Short-stay sites Total Total number of caravans 1979 135 35 170 2,988 1980 141 30 171 3,031 1981 159 27 186 3,433 1982 176 24 200 3,506 1983 198 9 207 3,910 1984 211 11 222 4,400
Numbers of caravans on authorised private sites Numbers 1979 1,194 1980 1,252 1981 1,369 1982 1,595 1983 1,448 1984 1,572
§ Mrs. Ann Wintertonasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will state the average capital cost of setting up a new gipsy site and the average annual running costs of such a site.
§ Mr. MacfarlaneSite acquisition and development costs vary according to the location and site difficulties encountered. Costs of sites also reflect the number of individual pitches they contain. In the financial year ended April 1984, grant applications to the Department indicate that an average of cost per pitch is now in the order of £13,000.
247WFigures are not available to enable an estimate of running costs to be made. These are the responsibility of the local authorities which manage the sites.