Select Committee on Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs Appendices to the Minutes of Evidence


Memorandum by The Royal Town Planning Institute (TF 56)

INTRODUCTION

  1. The Environment Sub-Committee of the Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs Committee has resolved to conduct a brief inquiry into Travelling Fairs. Examining:

    —  the continued value of historic travelling fairs;

    —  the provision of sites for travelling fairs;

    —  the particular needs of travelling showpeople in carrying out their trade;

    —  the effectiveness of existing planning guidance on the provision of quarters for travelling showpeople;

    —  whether any action is necessary to ensure that appropriate regard is had to the needs of travelling showpeople within the planning system; and

    —  any other matters which may arise in the course of questioning.

  2. The Institute considers that there is a problem in only a limited number of places with travelling fairs. However, it well appreciates that this is a major problem for the operators of and those who earn their living through travelling fairs. The Institute places a high premium on the equal opportunities dimension of the operation of the planning system and wishes to offer the following brief observations on the planning aspects of the inquiry based on experience reported by its membership.

COMMENTS

The continued value of historic travelling fairs

  3. The Institute assumes that historic travelling fairs continue to have some value to those who operate them. Otherwise, as commercial activities, they would have ceased to exist. It seems probable, however, that their popularity is declining in the face of competition from other recreational activities.

The provision of sites for travelling fairs

  4. The sites for genuine historic travelling fairs, and the fairs' visiting dates to them, have been established since time immemorial. The provision of sites for fairs, as distinct from the accommodation of the showpeople themselves, is traditional, and the usual duration of their use is short term. This is not seen as a problem area.

The particular needs of travelling showpeople in carrying out their trade

  5. The Institute has no observations to offer on this matter, apart from the obvious need for an operational base (particularly in winter) and satisfactory sites for the fairs themselves.

The effectiveness of existing planning guidance on the provision of quarters for travelling showpeople

  6. The current advice is contained in Department of the Environment Circular 22/91. While the national planning guidance might be improved (see paragraph 9, below), the Institute considers the main problem to be a limited knowledge of the lifestyle and site needs of travelling showpeople on the part of local authority councillors and their staff, the Department in framing and applying the guidance, and, undoubtedly, this is a reflection of much of the public at large. Planning applications and/or appeals relating to such uses are only very occasionally made to individual authorities, unless they happen to be areas with historic links with travelling showpeople. The resulting lack of experience and understanding mean that prejudice can very easily seep into the decision-making process.

  7. It also often appears to the case that travelling showpeople do not take independent professional planning advice until after they have encountered difficulties with the local planning authority. This seems to reinforce the following consequences:

    —  that most of the sites occupied by showpeople are located in areas where there is a tradition of understanding and acceptance of their lifestyle by both the local planning authority and the local community: and

    —  in areas without such a tradition, a likelihood of moving into a confrontational situation, before the planning issues have been fully and properly explored.

  8. The Circular refers to:

    —  showpeople requiring "winter quarters". It now seems to be more common for them to require year-round accommodation. This arises because of the needs of the showpeople themselves, including uninterrupted schooling for their children;

    —  further information provided by the Showmen's Guild of Great Britain. The Guild produces a brochure giving useful and detailed advice and guidance on site layout requirements; and

    —  the need for all development plans to include policies relating to travelling showpeople. This advice appears seldom to be followed, but is something of a double-edged weapon.

    —  All-embracing requirements such as this, irrespective of local application, tend to devalue the coinage. It is important to distinguish between areas of need—where appropriate policies should be included in development plans—and areas where showmen are rarely, if ever, present, and where such policies are, therefore, inappropriate.

    —  Awareness would be increased if such advice were to be included in PPG 1 "General Policy and Principals" and PPG 12 "Development Plans", along with the other guidance on the content of development plans, so that the guidance was integrated rather than left only in a freestanding Circular.

Whether any action is necessary to ensure that appropriate regard is had to the needs of travelling showpeople within the planning system

  9.  There are a number of ways in which the national planning guidance might be improved. It is important, however, not to lose a sense of proportion about the extent to which the particular requirements of travelling showpeople need to have specific recognition within the planning system:

    —  the distinction between showpeople and gypsies/travellers might be more clearly recognised;

    —  there is a need for more detailed information on site requirements and layout, such as that provided by the Showmen's Guild (see paragraph 8, above);

    —  current lifestyles point to the need to recognise year-round, rather than only seasonal requirements, and

    —  there is a need for better advice to local planning authorities on the appropriate use of planning conditions and section 106 obligations to control the occupancy of sites.

CONCLUSIONS

  10.  The Institute would draw three conclusions from their brief evidence:

    (a)  there is probably a lack of knowledge of the lifestyle and needs of travelling showpeople within central and local government generally, including the planning profession;

    (b)  although the incidence of travelling showpeople is limited, geographically, this lack of knowledge should be addressed;

    (c)  there is room for improvement in the scope and content of planning guidance on the subject. This would include both in reviewing Circular 22/91 but also in cross-referencing and integrating particular planning guidance on travelling showpeople with that on wider policy considerations in development plans and applications.

  11.  The Institute would be happy to amplify in oral evidence any of the points made in this submission, if this would be helpful to the Sub-Committee.

March 2000


 
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