Gypsy and traveller area poses 'unacceptable risk

AN illegal gypsy and traveller site created on a village field without permission poses an "unacceptable risk to public health and safety", officials say.

- By EDDIE BISKNELL Local democracy reporter

South Derbyshire District Council officers have recommended that retrospective plans from S Rogers for three Gypsy and Traveller pitches and three day rooms on land off Woodville Road, Overseal, are rejected.

Councillors are set to make the final decision at a meeting next week, with opposition being raised by 103 residents, Overseal Parish Council, MP Samantha Niblett, the district's environmental health officer, Derbyshire County Council's public rights of way team, and the Mining Remediation Authority.

Work on the site, which had been a vacant field opposite existing homes in Woodville Road, started without permission last August.

This saw the owner served with a temporary stop notice from the district council, prohibiting any further work or face “immediate prosecution”.

Work on the site continued, officials confirm, “despite the service of enforcement notices”, but the council has not detailed any formal legal action.