Travellers who set up a private camp in the north-east countryside may now face eviction after councillors rejected their bid to win planning permission.
Local authority officers have already endorsed proposals to build a stopover site among a group of cottages at Springhill, south Peterhead.
The scheme – tabled by a traveller family last year – was given the blessing of planners, but was rejected by local elected members and a final decision was made at a meeting of the full Aberdeenshire Council yesterday.
Agent Ryan Urquhart spoke on behalf of neighbour Irvine Haigh who objected to the plans and questioned why the applicants created the halting site, only to ask for retrospective permission.
Mr Urquhart said: “While we do have sympathy with anyone wishing to stay in Aberdeenshire, they should go through proper channels.”
Mr Irvine added: “The plan states there will be four caravans but there are always more. We’ve lived with these travellers for 10 months and we know it doesn’t work.
“There will always be friction when living at such close quarters.”
Despite planners’ recommendations to the contrary, councillors overwhelming objected to the scheme and the manner the application had been handled.
Local councillor Stephen Smith moved to block planning permission.
He said: “In some respects it is helpful that this is retrospective – we don’t have to wait for it to be built.
“The site is bounded by three domestic dwellings and the amenity of all three is affected.”
Fellow Buchan councillor Alan Gardiner – who said the application should never have been brought before full council – said: “The site is a disaster and the application is the same.
“There is no way we can police this. We had problems in the Boddam area with enforcement on encampments coming in. It’s the wrong application in the wrong place.”
And Fraserburgh Councillor Ian Tait added: “Why has this come to full council? How is an application for four pitches of ‘national or regional’ importance?”
No councillors were willing to propose granting permission and the application was unanimously rejected.
The residents on the Springhill site may now face eviction.
The decision was made only minutes after the full council surprisingly gave retrospective permission an encampment near St Cyrus, leading to jubilant scenes among the gypsy-traveller families gathered in the gallery at the council’s Woodhill House HQ in Aberdeen.
