PLANS for a £4.5 million Gypsy and traveller site in Blaenau Gwent have been recommended for approval by planning chiefs.
The council wants to build a new 28-pitch site in place of the existing Cwmcrachen settlement in Nantyglo, which has existed for more than 200 years.
Cwmcrachen, which has 20 pitches, is in a poor state of repair amid growing demand for more pitches in the borough.
Funding for the mobile pitches, which cost £150,000 each, will be covered by the Welsh Government should planning permission be granted.
The council says the extra pitches, amenity blocks, a warden’s office, grazing land and a play area can be easily accommodated “without resulting in overdevelopment”.
But the intended layout, which will split the site into two distinct areas, has been described as “not ideal”.
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The additional eight pitches would be accommodated on land known as Lewis Skips, which has been taken over by the council as part of a separate project to clear the site of waste.
A planning report says: “The proposal would have been more coherent as one site and would have encouraged a greater sense of community.
“However, the scheme has evolved in such a way to address concerns raised through the pre-application consultation process regarding the proximity of the proposal to residential properties.”
Concerns have also been raised about the proposals “tweaking” Welsh Government guidelines that new sites should not exceed 20 pitches unless exceptional circumstances are met, such as the need to keep families together.
One objector claimed such circumstances have not been met as the council had not considered alternative sites or offered Cwmcrachen’s community a more spacious 20-pitch site.
Another objector claiming to live closest to Cwmcrachen is opposed to the site expanding any further, while raising concerns about Nantyglo’s ability to cope with such an expansion.
The report, which quotes the objector, says: "Although historically there has been a Gypsy Traveller Camp in Nantyglo for many decades, why Nanytglo? Why not the rest of Blaenau Gwent?”
Blaenau Gwent council’s planning committee will consider the application on June 6.
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