Appeal goes in over traveller site application in Peterborough

Small traveller site at Mile Drove near Nine Bridges near Northborough EMN-160608-213714009

The saga over a travellers' site in Glinton has no end in sight after an appeal was launched against the decision to deny planning permission.

Peterborough City Council has spent three years trying to evict Patrick O’Connor and his family from land near Nine Bridges in Mile Drove where they live illegally.

Earlier this month the council’s planning department turned down an application for the land to be turned into a traveller site, with officers siting factors such as the high risk of flooding and damage to the landscape.

But an appeal has now gone in against that rejection, delaying the eviction process once more.

Council leader and Glinton ward councillor John Holdich said: “I will be talking to MP Shailesh Vara to see if the law can be changed to stop this method of getting around the planning rules which appears to be a problem all over country.”