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Traveller sites: Perverse to tear up list

8:20am Wednesday 5th October 2011 in Letters

UNDER government policy, Wyre Forest has to identify sites for gypsies/travellers. In pursuit of this £17,500 has been paid to planning consultants to write a report and identify sites.

Reasonable you may think. It’s government policy after all and professional consultants are being employed by the council to carry out evidenced-based research and make proposals.

Presumably, the council trusted the consultants to do a thorough job.

The consultants subsequently produce a detailed 123-page “independent assessment of potential sites.....”

The report shortlisted five sites. A further 10 are identified as worthy of further investigation, albeit these have recognised constraints and seven of them lie within Green Belt.

What is the district council’s response? They commission a report and then ignore the primary recommendations by rejecting four of the five shortlisted sites. That is perverse.

Regardless of views on gypsy/traveller sites or local politics, does this not seem like a total waste of taxpayers money?

KEVIN LUDWIG Woodlands Road Cookley

Comments(2)

Stephen Brown says...
7:56pm Wed 5 Oct 11

I find it hard to believe that the council does not have someone in their paid employ i.e. a member of staff who is not capable of producing such a report and to a higher standard. Afterall, the number of staff with university degrees in the public sector compared to the private sector is quite high at 38% as compared to 23%.

Using consultants seems like a modern council disease used to divert responsibility, so yes, this decision is perverse to say the least.

Then again it may not be so peverse if we could understood the reasons why councils, not just WFDC, find it acceptable to spend £millions every year of our money in such a way.

More information:
http://www.wfa.org.u
k/2011/10/01.asp

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Mary79 says...
7:32pm Sat 8 Oct 11

Why is it not possible to leave a comment on the "Criminal damage at Hartlebury Common" Article???
Is that because it is no criminal damage and the Shuttle is worried somebody might point that out?
You can not fence common land so Worcestershire County Council is the criminal here and rightly so people fight against that.

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