HC Deb 20 December 1990 vol 183 cc270-1W
Mr. Colvin

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he now proposes to relax planning controls over sites for travelling showpeople.

Mr. Yeo

I have considered carefully, in the light of the responses to my Department's consultation paper "Sites for Travelling Showpeople", whether to introduce permitted development rights for the stationing of up to five caravans, inhabited by travelling showpeople and their families, and for the storage and maintenance of their fairground equipment.

I do not underestimate the difficulties which some showpeople have experienced in obtaining sites with planning permission from which to base their activities. However, the consultation exercise has highlighted the difficulty of reconciling any relaxation of planning control with safeguarding local amenity and the environment. Accordingly, I have decided not to introduce permitted development rights to establish sites for travelling showpeople.

My Department will, however, issue fresh guidance to local planning authorities which will emphasise that, both in formulating local and unitary development plan policies and in development control decisions, authorities should take full account of travelling showpeople's requirements for secure, long-term sites. My officials will work closely with the Showmen's Guild of Great Britain in preparing the guidance.