Plans for Anglesey traveller sites to be submitted

Anglesey council officers have been asked to submit planning applications for the island's first two gypsy and traveller sites.

The council is required to meet the accommodation needs of that community under new Welsh housing laws.

Land has been earmarked for a temporary stopping place in Star, and a permanent residential site near Penhesgyn.

But the council's executive agreed on Monday that detailed planning applications should now be submitted.

Both sites have already been the subject of detailed design considerations - including air quality, noise, ecology and flood risk assessments - following a site selection process and public consultation in 2016.

The temporary stopping place would accommodate up to 10 caravans.

The permanent residential site would provide four pitches for the traveller community currently living in a lay-by next to the A5025 between Menai Bridge and Pentraeth.

About 150 people attended a meeting in July last year to raise concerns about the Star site.

'Negative perceptions'

Anglesey's head of housing, Shan Lloyd Williams said the lack of any official sites had led to "regular unauthorised encampments, which have caused tensions in local communities and negative perceptions of the Gypsy and traveller community".

She said: "Public consultations on these proposed sites attracted significant local opposition, but this alone cannot be used as justification for not choosing particular sites.

"In coming to our recommendations, we have tried to balance the county council's legal responsibilities under the Housing Act 2014 as well as the needs of local residents."

Council representatives have offered to meet with residents from Star next week after they requested a meeting to discuss the scheme.

Sites at Cyttir Road and Tyddyn Lantern Farm in Holyhead were turned down by the council last year.