Opposition to traveller site plan

Villagers are opposing plans by travellers to set up permanent home on a site near Brecon, Powys.

Some families have already moved onto a field in Llanfilo and have now applied to develop the land, but objectors claim the location is unsuitable.

More than 100 locals held a public meeting when the travellers moved in after they had spent almost two years living in a nearby lay-by.

A charity supporting travellers said the camp would be a proper home.

On Tuesday, Powys Council met behind closed doors to discuss a report about the plans drafted by the authority’s Gypsy working group, following a site meeting by officials.

The proposals come a year after a council survey started into whether a second Gypsy and travellers’ camp should be built in Powys. There is already a permanent site in Welshpool.

‘Wet and boggy’

A spokesman for Llanfilo and District Residents Group, which is opposed to the development near Brecon, said: "We (the community) are absolutely amazed the council could even consider this site. It is very wet and boggy.

"We’re not objecting to the travellers, but we feel the planned location is not suitable."

The charity Friends, Families and Travellers, which represents Gypsies, said an authorised site would put the families on a proper footing.

The charity’s Emma Nuttall said: "An authorised camp is much better than an unauthorised site.

"It would mean travellers would pay rent and council tax, and they would have access to utilities that the rest of us take for granted.

"Everybody needs a home. I know of 50 families that are forced to move on every year because they do not have a site."