NO WAY: Neighbours up in arms over travellers' site plans

Land along the railway line between Hearnfield Road and Coomes Way in Wick has been the subject of numerous planning applications for housing since it was sold in the 1980s.

But now the owner of the 6,300 square metre site, the Surrey-based Milford Group, has lodged a plan with Arun District Council to turn it into a permanent residential site for travellers, with six permanent pitches.

In a move similar to that of the developers of the Eden Park housing development just down the road, which has been compared to the Somme Battlefield, the site, left overgrown for several years, has been stripped of its trees and shrubs by developers over the last three weeks.

Eveline Abbott, of Hearnfield Road, whose home backs on to the land, described the plan as "madness" and said that the developers would have another fight on their hands.

A particular aspect of the plans that concerns Eveline and her partner Terry Burns is the proposal to demolish the bungalow adjoining theirs to make an entrance access to the land.

The developers own the bungalow and told the Gazette the building was structurally unsound.

"No-one's told me anything about this," she said. "All I can say is we've got a party wall right under government legislation and they can't do anything without consulting us first.

"We've lived here for five years and fought three previous applications on the site and they've got a fight on their hands again.

"I have got nothing against travellers in general but I've never heard of putting a site for them in the middle of a residential area. It's madness."

For the full report: see this week's Gazette.