Here it is, finally: Labour’s ‘growth’ strategy. And what does it consist of? Reform of planning laws to make it easier for travellers to set up encampments in the countryside, in places where any other form of development would be banned. Under the previous rules, councils could consider ‘potential environmental damage caused by unauthorised encampments’ when looking at applications for traveller sites. The rules also said that sites should only be approved if they ‘provide a settled base that limits the need for long-distance travelling’. Both of these regulations have now been scrapped.

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This will make it considerably harder for local residents to object to applications for encampments. The idea that we should no longer be able to object on the basis of environmental damage is utterly bizarre. Just come and have a look at some of the byways around where I live which become elongated rubbish dumps every time the travellers move on. If I drop a beer can in the High Street or, in some places, put my wheelie bin out a few hours early, I could be slapped with a £500 fine. It seems to be a different rule for travellers. 

This is not really a growth strategy: it is just a policy........

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