Gypsy family being moved to tourism spot for the winter
A HOMELESS Gypsy family will be moved from a Derbyshire town’s car park to a tourism hotspot in the latest step of a long-running bid to find them a permanent home.
The family, who identify as Romani Gypsy, have declared themselves homeless and have been living on the Clifton Road coach park site in Ashbourne for more than four months. This was a move arranged by Derbyshire Dales District Council, which has a legal obligation to find them a temporary and permanent home, and the family cannot be evicted from an approved site without another to move them to.
The council’s executive team made an urgent decision to assign the Matlock Bath station car park as the new temporary site specifically for the family in question earlier this month and this will last until the end of January next year.
Travellers previously stayed on the station car park three years ago and were subsequently evicted, with councillors, business owners and residents saying their presence threatened trade and tourism.
Meanwhile, the Derwent Way car park in Matlock, next to the town’s train station, which has already been home to a second homeless Traveller family since late 2020, is also being readopted as a temporary approved site.
Cllr Sue Hobson, deputy leader of the council and chair of the new Gypsy and Traveller site working group, said the authority was not currently providing long-term solutions, but “stepping stones”. She said while two sites are being put forward as temporary plots, only one is suitable for all-year use.
Cllr Hobson said no suitable council-owned sites have been identified in the south of the district, an area where the homeless Gypsy family wish to settle, but say there are private sites that may be feasible and require further investigation. New temporary sites are sought to be adopted from January 31 next year, with a council debate to be held to decide them.
The idea of both families sharing the same plot has previously been ruled out. A report from the new working group has also recommended that 27 potential councilowned sites in Ashbourne, Ashford, Bakewell, Baslow, Eyam, Hartington, Hulland Ward, Matlock, Matlock Bath, Northwood, Tansley, Rowsley, Stoney Middleton and Wirksworth are ruled out. The site in Harrison Way, Northwood, had only been adopted by the council as a temporary site at the end of September, with the family set to be moved to the plot – between the River Derwent and a rail yard. A meeting in July failed to see councillors back any of the 133 potential sites put forward by council officers for designation as a temporary plot.
Members of the working group have now visited all of the potential 133 sites and have agreed that five potential plots require further investigations before recommendations can be made. A report from the group does not offer a glowing review of the search for sites, saying members were looking for the “least worst” option.
It says: “There are no perfect or easy solutions available to the district council in identifying sites. If there had been, they would have been identified and delivered a long time ago to ensure that the commitment of the authority in the Local Plan could be delivered and families that are accepted as homeless could be accommodated according to their needs.”
It says only two sites were deemed suitable without further investigation – the plot at Matlock Bath station and the other at Matlock station, with the Matlock Bath site said to only be suitable for the winter months. This alludes to previous issues raised by businesses and others about summer trade in the tourism honeypot. Councillors Sue Burfoot and Steve Flitter, who represent the Matlock site, said the family had caused “inconvenience” to the community and businesses but had kept it in a good condition.
Cllr Garry Purdy, representing the Matlock Bath area, said the station car park site was unsuitable due to its proximity to a primary school. He said it should only be used until the end of January “whilst the number of tourists and visitors to local attractions was reduced”.