Development threatening ‘way of life’ in Hinton St George

There has been a controversial planning application lodged on the outskirts of the village of Hinton St George, near Crewkerne. You can see the application here.

The application is for a Gypsy encampment of two caravans to house a family who are travellers. A number of people have approached me for my views on this issue. As with all these applications the local authority are only able to judge the matter on planning grounds and in line with their own planning policy. It is therefore right that you set aside the issue of who is making the application and the nature of the application as I am aware that the issue of traveller sites can in themselves be controversial. The site is a former orchard that was bought by the applicant back in July 2009.

Hinton St George is one of the more beautiful Hamstone villages in this part of Somerset - I gather, although I have never witnessed it, that it is still a village that practices Punkie Night. The fact is that this is a village that has little development on its outskirts and the idea of perimeter land around the village being developed is a nonsense.

The village is quite an active one and there was much activity when the Post Office was threatened with closure. At that time I wrote to Post Offices Ltd asking them to reconsider. As it happens the village did not really need the help of politicians as they were perfectly able to make their case and indeed won the fight to retain their Post Office. Planning is, however, a different issue. The real threat here is that the Councillors who vote on this are not aware of what they will be doing to the village if they allow the start of developments along its perimeter. But they also need to consider whether this is the sort of application that might be won on appeal.

Up and down the country there are planning applicants who apply for permission almost hoping that the application will be refused so they can go and appeal to an inspector in Bristol - a person with little knowledge of the area and almost certainly not likely to even visit the area. Our villages are held together by social glue and when that glue is threatened by an unsettling, unwanted, development then we must all worry.

My advice to anyone who is reading this is to ensure that you object to this planning application, not because we do not want to provide suitable locations for traveller sites across the area, but because to allow this application starts to gnaw away at the history and social fabric of these wonderful rural villages where life goes just that little bit slower. But when you do object make sure you do so on planning grounds and not on emotive issues that Councillors are unable to consider as part of theapplication process.