2:00pm Saturday 13th March 2010
Councillors are likely to approve a mobile home development on green belt land, in a bid to meet Gypsy and Traveller targets.
Three Rivers District Council will meet on Thursday evening to debate a planning application for The Paddock, in Little Oxhey Lane.
Its development control committee has been advised by expert planning officers to grant special dispensation to the applicant, Nathan Jordan, because he and his family can legally be classed as travellers.
The council, like many other local authorities in the countries, is under government orders to provide additional accommodation sites for travelling families.
A council report, prepared to brief committee members, said: “Such development, as proposed in this planning application, is normally considered inappropriate within the Metropolitan Green Belt. “However, the general need to provide Gypsy and Traveller accommodation within Three Rivers District and Hertfordshire County - in conjunction with the personal needs of the Jordans - are considered to amount to very special circumstances that outweigh any material harm caused to the Metropolitan Green Belt.”
The committee, which may choose to reject the recommendation, has been advised to grant permission for a period of five years, on the condition that only one mobile home will be stationed on the site at any one time.
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