A travellers site on a burgeoning £2billion north-east town may take “decades” to take shape under the terms of an agreement between the local authority and a developer.
Aberdeenshire Council’s gypsy-travellers sub-committee chairman, Allan Hendry, has hit out at the terms of a section 75 agreement with the Elsick Development Company (EDC) for failing to address the pressing need to require stop-offs for the ethnic minority.
It comes after a new report revealed there were more illegal travellers camps in Aberdeenshire than anywhere else in Scotland last year, with 61 recorded.
The terms agreed between the EDC and the local authority for Chapelton of Elsick – where approval for 4,045 homes have been approved – stipulates that a travellers site will not be required until the 1,745th home is occupied.
It adds this encampment could be either within or outwith the development, at the discretion of the developer.
The agreement also states that the EDC may pay £100,000 to do away with the obligation, allowing the council to build a site elsewhere in Aberdeenshire.
However SNP councillor Mr Hendry said it may take “decades” for the 1,745th home to be built at Chapelton of Elsick.
And he said the £100,000 payment was a “back door”, adding: “I have asked for a special meeting to be convened before the end of this council.
“£100,000 is nothing now. I and the rest of the committee were unhappy with the terms of the section 75.
“Could they just hand over a sum of money and exude responsibility with regards to the site? Could money just be handed over and then (it is) left to the local authority? Who would have to pay for construction of a site?
“As you know we are obliged as a local authority to provide halting sites for gypsy-travellers. This has been going on for 25 years. The only one is up in Banff.
“We have got to have public halting sites where gypsy-travellers coming into our area are directed to.”
He provided a list of questions to planning officers following the sub-committee’s meeting.
Director of the EDC, the Duke of Fife, said: “As part of our section 75 agreement with Aberdeenshire Council, which lays down a range of requirements for the development, we are required, prior to occupation of the 1745th house, to provide, at our discretion, either a gypsy-traveller site within the development site; or a gypsy-traveller site outwith the development site; or £100,000.
“We believe we can find a site outwith the development or we will make the cash contribution to enable the council to develop a site at a suitable location elsewhere.”
A council spokesman confirmed planning officers are working on responding to Mr Hendry’s questions.