Show people given a notice of eviction (From Tewkesbury Admag)

Show people given a notice of eviction

11:48am Thursday 12th October 2006 in News

The travelling show people now living illegally on land at Aston Cross still have nowhere to go.

The borough planning committee has turned down their application to use land at the junction of the Stow and Evesham roads at Toddington, next to the Orchard Trading Estate for their living caravans and fair ground equipment.

The eight families have been served with an injunction ordering them to leave the field at Aston Cross, and are expecting to be taken to court for it to be enforced.

Showman Shady Scarrott said they'd had numerous meetings with officers to try and resolve the problem.

"I am sure if there was a site they would have found it by now. What are we supposed to do, we are living in a muddy field, the winter is coming and we are being taken to court," he said angrily.

The show people were evicted from land they own at Gotherington, but which they occupied without planning permission, in February this year.

They were given a temporary home in a field with no water, electricity or other facilities, at Aston Cross, by farmer Jeff Brown. In May they applied for permission to set up home on a former sand pit at Shurdington.

This was turned down in June on grounds it was in the green belt.

This week councillors voted by six votes to three to follow the officers recommendation and turn down this latest application because it is within a designated special landscape area and in clear view from part of the Cotswold area of outstanding natural beauty.

Coun Maggie Levett said: "Those are the flimsiest excuses I've ever heard. It's next to a trading estate.

Coun Derek Davies countered: "It is a planning matter, and has to be decided by planning rules."