NOT IN MY BACKYARD AGAIN

FROM DEWSBURY REPORTER ENGLAND

Hundreds march over plans for gypsy site near Dewsbury


Published on Tue Oct 05 11:17:46 BST 2010

MORE than 700 people took to the streets during a protest march against plans for a permanent travellers site near Dewsbury.

Hundreds marched through Dewsbury on Saturday to meet a second group of protesters from Ossett before converging on the Dewsbury Rams Tetley’s Stadium in Shaw Cross where a rally was held.

The stadium in Owl Lane is just a short distance from the Ossett tip which Wakefield City Council is considering turning into a travellers site as part of its Local Development Framework (LDF).

The plans for the site have been met with widespread anger from people living on both sides of the Dewsbury-Ossett border.

Hundreds of letters and several petitions with thousands of signatures were sent to the council before a public consultation closed last week.

Dewsbury MP Simon Reevell, who spoke at the rally, said: “It’s something people just don’t want and shouldn’t have to have.

“We had the march to keep the pressure up and I would hope common sense will see they will come back fairly quickly and, whatever else they’re doing about LDF, they won’t have a travellers site.”