Travellers living on an unauthorised site next to Exeter Racecourse have been given six months to move out.
Travellers living on an unauthorised site next to Exeter Racecourse have been given six months to move out.
But members of Teignbridge Council’s planning committee raised concerns about where they will go.
“I’m very concerned that they are going to be turned out with nowhere to live,” said Cllr Janet Bradford (Ind, College). “I can’t vote for people to be made homeless. We need to have some humanity here.”
A report for the committee said around 15 caravans are on the former car park site in woodland north of the racecourse before Christmas.
No planning permission has been given for them to be there, and an application for five caravan pitches on the land was turned down last September. The only authorised site in Teignbridge is just next door, but it is already full and has a waiting list.
The committee heard that talks are under way to acquire another site.
The caravans on the former car park are thought to have been there for around two years, short of the 10-year threshold at which they become officially ‘established’.
Planners were recommended to begin enforcement action to clear the area, with residents being given six months’ notice.
Cllr John Parrott (Lib Dem, Kenn Valley) said the site is ‘of considerable concern’ to locals. “It is very untidy,” he said. “There are piles of rubbish, gas bottles and piles of scrap metal.”
Cllr Paul Parker (Ind, Ambrook) said the best solution would be for the council to take over the site.
He added: “It’s okay to get rid of them, but they will look for a similar place again. All we do is to displace the problem somewhere else.”
Cllr Alex Hall (Con, Buckland and Milber) said he was ‘uneasy’ about moving people off a site when there was no alternative available, and said a decision should be deferred.
But the committee voted by a majority to go ahead with enforcement action.
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