Campaign to stop 55 Pitch Travellers site at Valley Road



Cottingley Springs expansion opposed

Regular readers know we have always taken a firm line on Travellers sites across the Morley area. We have lead the successful campaign against the expansion of Cottingley Springs Travellers site and have had the Secretary of State call in the application for a Public Inquiry where it is likely to be buried because of its non compliance with Local and National Planning Policy. That Policy is to oppose large scale Travellers sites in favour of smaller family based sites - sites with fewer than 12 pitches.

This is why we were outraged to hear of a new planning application for a 55 pitch Travellers site on Valley Road in Morley. This is clearly an unacceptable application because it will overwhelm Morley with more Traveller families. Indeed Morley is the community more impacted upon by Cottingley Springs than any other community and the problems with that site are well documented and well understood by local residents.

It is clear that the Police can barely cope with the challenges of anti-social behaviour emanating form Cottingley Springs. Adding a larger Travellers site within couple of miles of Cottingley Springs would overwhelm local communities, undermine Morley Town centre and leave the Police with a problem it will be beyond their capacity to resolve.
In Planning Terms the site is inappropriate for this type of development. It is an industrial site which will be needed to support new businesses - creating the jobs we will need in the future. The road to the site is inadequate for caravans and the many industrial vehicles Travellers will bring to the site. It is isolated and too close to the railway line for any domestic use.
It's clearly not in the Travellers interest either. Many residents on Cottingley Springs will tell you that the site is too large and leads to all sorts of problems as different families continue to run feuds against each other. Smaller family sites avoid this problem.
The interesting thing will be the position of the Labour Party on this issue. They are renowned for being soft on travellers and - as long as they don't live in Labour Wards - they are quite happy to tolerate Travellers in other peoples Wards. Indeed for years they have bleated on about unauthorised sites but do nothing to share the problem across the City preferring to dump the problem on the Morley/Wortley area.
This cannot be allowed to go ahead and we have called a public meeting on Monday 12th May at 7pm at Morley Town Hall to form a campaign group to oppose it. I have had large numbers of e mails and phone calls opposing the site but we need to be unified to make sure we send a clear message that Morley will not become the dumping ground for Leeds' Traveller problem.