Policy information sourced from Bromley Local Plan

Policy 12 Traveller’s Accommodation

The Council will ensure the continued provision of sites for Travellers (including Gypsies and Travellers and Travelling Showpeople) at the sites allocated as traveller sites only, illustrated in the location map “Location of Sites, allocated as Traveller Sites only, inset within the Green Belt”, and detailed in Appendix 10.3.

The Council will monitor and seek to address the accommodation needs of Travellers, including pitches for Gypsies and Travellers, and plots for Travelling Show-people, in partnership with representative groups and the wider sub region.

The Council will seek to meet the identified need for provision by first considering the potential within allocated Traveller sites. Proposals for new development within allocated traveller sites will need to be sensitively located and landscaped to minimise adverse impacts on the visual amenity of the site and adjoining land.

Proposals for new Traveller Sites to address an identified need for provision will be acceptable provided that:

  • the site lies outside any areas of constraint, complying with Green Belt and other open space policies, and
  • the site is well-related to schools, medical facilities, shops and public transport, and
  • there are no adverse effects on the residential amenity of neighbouring properties and the local environment, and
  • there are no adverse impacts on the health and wellbeing of travellers related to local environmental quality (such as noise and air quality).
  • Sites in areas at high risk of flooding, including functional floodplains, will generally be resisted given the particular vulnerability of caravans.

With regard to the need for transit pitches the Council will work with the sub-region to secure their provision in an appropriate location within the sub-region.

Traveller Sites will be safeguarded for the purposes of Traveller Sites only. Proposals that would result in the loss of all or part of a Traveller site will be refused unless the local planning authority is satisfied that there is no longer a need for the provision.

Given the allocation of the sites as insets within the Green Belt for Traveller Sites only, only uses appropriate in the Green Belt will be permitted should the site no longer be needed for traveller purposes.

For more information please see the Local Plan