Cottenham Travellers Evicted

22 July 2010, 12:10 | Updated: 22 July 2010, 12:30

Some travellers living on unauthorised pitches in the Cambridgeshire village of Cottenham are to be evicted from the site.

Plots at Victoria View, Orchard Drive and Water Lane on Smithy Fen were refused planning permission, but travellers are still living on them.

The plots were refused planning permission by South Cambridgeshire District Council for a number of reasons.

According to the authority, the main problem was that the land between sites which were authorised was filled in and and created a "very urban form of land development".

Now, the council has decided to move all of the occupants off the unauthorised pitches, despite recommendations councillors "tolerated" the situation while a long-term plan for Smithy Fen was established.

South Cambridgeshire District Council must now go to court to agree a timescale for the enforcement action.

Travellers living on the site can appeal against the ruling, however if any appeals are not successful then bailiffs can be sent in to clear the site.

Speaking after the district council's planning enforcement sub-committee made the decision, Councillor Nick Wright said: "If somebody moved on to land and erected a building on it, then that building would be cleared.

Councillors felt that exactly the same should apply to the traveling population as the settled population."