COUNCILLORS have criticised plans for gypsy and traveller pitches on the edge of the Hounsome Fields housing estate for being ‘isolated’.

Vistry Homes had submitted an application for two pitches on the junction of Winchester Road and Trenchard Lane, Dummer, but it received 62 objections from members of the public.

The proposal was brought to the borough council’s development control committee on Wednesday, May 10.

The Hounsome Fields development, on the A30 Winchester Road, is set to see 750 homes built along with a 420-place primary school.

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Speaking at the meeting, the chairman of Dummer Parish Council, Julian Jones, said: “It is an application that minimises the impact on the developer and harms everybody else.”

Cllr Jones raised concerns about the impact on nearby residents at Southwood Farm, the site's future inhabitants, along with the proximity to the allotments and the removal of a mature hedge to allow for access.

He added: “For travellers and gypsies it is an isolated site, dangerous especially for their children because of the commuter traffic on Trenchard Lane. It is remote from schools, shops, public transport and other facilities.”

Resident Will Jones also expressed concern about the access route to the site, Trenchards Lane, saying it is a “small unsuitable road” and that it is only a “matter of time before a serious incident occurred”.

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While resident Melanie Gill said: “The traveller site is completely isolated. We must ask the question why the traveller site is not being routed through Hounsome Fields which would allow full integration.”

During the debate, committee member Cllr Angie Freeman said: “I don't think it serves the needs and wants of the traveller community at all. I do think it is very isolated, they are not integrated at all, and our own policy states that we should be trying to integrate these people into our communities not sticking them right down the end of a development. I really think the developer needs to go away and do better.”

Concerns were also raised about the lack of a route for foul water sewage and how caravans would manoeuvre into place on the site.

While Cllr Ken Rhatigan said that the council has “failed” the traveller community with a number of undelivered sites and expressed that the plan should be approved.

The application was rejected by eight councillors, with one against and one abstention.