NORTHFLEET: Travellers say new site will take place of war veterans club (From News Shopper)

NORTHFLEET: Travellers say new site will take place of war veterans club

7:00am Monday 13th July 2009 in

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WAR veterans will be turfed out of their clubhouse to make way for a gypsy site extension, claims one of the travellers.

Two weeks ago eight families moved onto former allotment land off Springhead Road, Northfleet, after Gravesham Council evicted them from green belt land in Sole Street.

The council provided the new site, and one of the travellers says it has told them that in April the site will be extended to adjacent land currently used by the Royal Naval Association’s Gravesend branch.

Anne Scarrott said: “The council said they are going to knock the navy club down in April so we can have more space.”

The 34-year-old, whose husband Joseph owns the land they lived on in Sole Street, said: “There is not enough space while the navy club is here, we are all too close to each other and can see into each others windows.”

A Gravesham Council spokeswoman denied the navy club would be knocked down in April and the travellers site extended.

However, she did say the council wants to move the association to a new building, and is discussing a number of options with its chairman John Down.

The 74-year-old says he has not been told about any plans for the travellers site to take over the land in April, and is against the council’s attempts to move the club.

Mr Down says the associations 160 members do not want to move from the clubhouse they have been in for 30 years.

He said: “We are fighting to stay here. A lot of our members are elderly people who live nearby and don't want to have to go somewhere else.”

In December the council’s planning application for the Springhead Road travellers site, which is next to a cemetery, was permitted by its regulatory board despite protests from more than 300 nearby residents.

At the time, Waterdales resident Irene Spencer said she was worried a travellers site would bring an increase in crime and anti-social behaviour in the area.

On Friday (July 10), the 59-year-old said there had been no trouble yet since the travellers arrived, but she is “worried there will be”.

Bailiffs from Gravesham Council, supported by police, evicted the travellers from their site off White Post Lane, Sole Street, on July 6.

Caravans and static mobile homes were dragged out and diggers ripped up paving and knocked down fences.

Although the travellers own the land, which they moved onto in October 2004, they breached government green belt rules by developing on it.

The land will be restored to farmland, and Mrs Scarrott says she is unsure what her husband will do with it.