Traveller site at railway station car park approved

Plans to turn a makeshift traveller site in a railway station car park into a formal temporary plot have been approved by councillors.

Part of the Matlock railway station car park off Derwent Way was one of four sites earmarked for temporary use last December.

The plot – which is already in use and has been for years – would be restricted to use only by a specific homeless traveller family for whom the council has a legal obligation, and only for a maximum of two years.

Councillors approved the formal decision at a Derbyshire Dales District Council meeting on Tuesday.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said the railway station site will have space for four caravans and six vehicles and be barred from hosting commercial activity, with councillors also backing a requirement for a site management plan.

Sue Hobson, a district and county councillor, told the meeting the site was "wholly unsuitable" and questioned the "credibility" of a temporary designation "when the family have been there for years".

However, fellow county and district representative Sue Burfoot said the two-year window "is reasonable", and praised Matlock residents for being "very tolerant".

"There have been issues in the past but they have been dealt with very professionally by the team at the district council," she said.

"No car park is ideal as a traveller site. None of us are saying that a car park is a suitable site for a traveller site but we are where we are.

"We have gone through two administrations where we have failed to find a permanent site and there is an identified need for a family for which we have a homeless obligation in law. We cannot get away from that."

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