Hayle Area Action Plan and Gypsies
10 February 2008
The Hayle Area Action Plan (HAAP) is one of the most important documents to be presented to the people of Hayle for their views in quite a few years. The plan, when completed, will determine land use in the Hayle area until 2026.
One item that has attracted a lot of attention is the location of Gypsy and Traveller sites. The HAAP lays out the legislation and government guidelines that must be followed and identifies a need for a single transit camp with 5 pitches for the Hayle area. A transit camp does not need to be near to services or the town centre. I think we will, without too much difficulty, be able to find such a site which does not meet local opposition.
There is good news and bad news in the fracas ensuing from this issue. The good news is that many more people are now aware of and involved in the HAAP consultation process. The bad news is there does not seem to be much interest in the other issues.
Under the revised Regional Spatial Strategy, the number of new dwellings allocated to Hayle has risen from 2,000 to 3,250 during the plan period. Is there enough room for this number of new properties? Will you have avoided having a Gypsy and Traveller transit site across the road only to find a housing estate with 1,000 new homes there instead? The harbour development is currently proposing in the region of 1,039 dwellings. We need to find room for the equivalent of two more harbour developments worth of housing over the next 20 years.
Perhaps more importantly, we need to find space for job-creating businesses. It is not much good building homes if there is no work for the people who live there.
I hope that, once the dust has settled on the Gypsy and Traveller issue, local residents will turn their attention to the other important matters in the action plan.
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