BASINGSTOKE MP Maria Miller has welcomed Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council’s decision to deny planning permission for gypsy pitches on a local site.

As reported in The Gazette, the council refused an application to site three gypsy pitches in Dixon Road, Sherfield-on-Loddon, on land where hundreds of trees were illegally felled.

Mrs Miller said: “The site has not been identified as suitable for development and the council is right to reject the application.

“The present owners have tried to flout the law and ride roughshod over local residents and the democratic process.

“It is right that their application to build has been rejected and that existing residents’ rights have been protected.”