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North-east oil worker goes to war with travellers

Mark Davidson outside Springhill Cottages. Picture by Colin Rennie
Mark Davidson outside Springhill Cottages. Picture by Colin Rennie

A NORTH-east oil worker has gone into battle against plans to create a permanent travellers camp just feet from his home.

Mark Davidson says the proposal – for a patch of land neighbouring three residential properties at Springhill near Peterhead – will send the price of his house tumbling and make it unsaleable.

He has submitted a formal objection to an application for retrospective planning permission from a group of travellers.

Thomas Collins and his family – frustrated by the lack of stopover sites in Aberdeenshire – have already bought the site and set up camp and are only now seeking approval for four caravan pitches, eight parking spaces, an internal access road and bordering fences.

Travellers have camped out behind the cottages. Picture by Colin Rennie
Travellers have camped out behind the cottages. Picture by Colin Rennie

Last night a senior councillor said the situation illustrated the challenges facing the local authority as it battles to balance the needs of the settled and travelling communities.

Allan Hendry chairs Aberdeenshire Council’s traveller committee, which is in the early stages of considering proposals for the local authority to create permanent stopover areas for travelling families.

He said: “There are always a lot of issues over these gypsy traveller sites and I’m hoping on this occasion we can find one or two sites during the consultation that are acceptable to people.”

The Mid-Formartine councillor believes that if travellers are involved in running a site – as would be the case at Springhill – it is more likely to be kept clean and well managed, and that this would extend to privately-owned camps.

“I’d like to try to convince members of the public to accept that,” he added.

Mr Davidson, whose garden is only feet from the Collins’s site, remains to be convinced.

He said: “I do sympathise with what they want – they need somewhere to stay and the nature of their work means they have to travel, but this site is between three residential houses.

“I was going to move but now I’m concerned I won’t be able to sell up. The value of the house is in decline. Would you buy this house?

“They need somewhere to stay and that place should be a traveller site with facilities where it’s not going to affect people.”

The application for the proposed site at Springhill is open for public comment until next Monday.

If councillors reject the scheme, Mr Collins has said he is willing to accept a one-year temporary permission so he can demonstrate the site can be a success.

Last night property consultant Alan Seath, speaking on behalf of the applicant, said it was right that local people such as Mr Davidson should be able to lodge their support or objection during the consultation period.

He said: “I have spoken to the neighbours myself when I was at the site with environmental services – they were fair and frank about their views.”

The gypsy-traveller committee has stressed that a full public consultation will take place before any final decision is made on the four locations under consideration for a permanent site – at Blackdog, Chapelton, Ellon and Thainstone.

Mr Hendry added: “We have to listen to what everybody has to say and that’s why we will have a fairly lengthy consultation period. There are a lot of legitimate objections to do with increased traffic and the dumping of materials.”