Agenda item

Discussion paper on the Gypsy and Traveller Needs Assessment in Monmouthshire.

Context:

The Strong Communities Select Committee convened the Select Committee to consider the draft findings of the Gypsy and Traveller Accommodation Assessment for Monmouthshire, which is a statutory requirement of the Council. The Council’s Housing & Communities service led the Assessment, with the independent guidance of the South East Wales Regional Equalities Council, which is due to be submitted to Welsh Government by 26^th February 2016. Committee Members met members of the Gypsy and Traveller community at the beginning of January in order to better understand the circumstances and needs of the community to inform the debate at the Committee.

          Key Issues:

• Under Part 3 of the Housing (Wales) Act 2014, all local authorities must undertake a Gypsy & Traveller Accommodation Assessment and to make provision where assessments identify an unmet need for mobile home pitches (See Appendix 2).

• The assessments were undertaken with reference to Welsh Government guidance document, ‘Undertaking Gypsy & Traveller Accommodation Assessments’ published in May 2015 (See Appendix 3).

• All Local Authorities have until the 26^th February 2016 to submit their assessments to the Welsh Government for scrutiny.

• The purpose of the assessment is to inform the Council’s LDP Annual Monitoring Report and the LDP Review Process to meet both current and future needs for Gypsy and Traveller sites.

The following provides a brief summary of the Assessment process, and its Findings. For a more detailed information please refer to the Assessment report.

Process:

 A Steering Group comprising of important key stakeholders and members of the

Gypsy and Traveller community was formed to oversee the assessment process and its findings. The group had a number of responsibilities including:

 Helping to identify households living within the community to contact and survey using the standard questionnaire contained in the Guidance.

 To help scrutinise and provide feedback on the results:

 To sign off the report to be submitted to Welsh Government.

 Household survey interviews were conducted between June and November 2015 by officers from Housing & Communities Service, with the assistance of the

Regional Equalities Council’s Gypsy & Traveller Liaison Officer. The Assessment’s core findings, conclusions and recommendations are based on the answers to the questionnaire.

Member Scrutiny:

A Member sought clarification on an item in the report, in which it states that unauthorised sites may be tolerated while site are in development, and asked would the Authority tolerate this indefinitely. The Head of Planning answered that advice had been taken from Welsh Government guidance and that during the period that a planning application is under review, the Authority may tolerate an unauthorised site for a short period of time, until planning application is determined. If refused, enforcement action would take place.

A Member commented on the new definition of need and asked if it better reflects the needs of the Traveller Community. We were advised that the needs of Travellers have not been satisfactorily accessed in the past. The definition of need is one area of guidance which is not prescriptive. We are currently in a position that the information collected was not anonymous, allowing us to provide bespoke help.