A DECISION is set to be made on a controversial plan to build a new traveller site on the edge of the city.

Up to ten permanent traveller pitches could be built on land next to the A4440 in St Peter’s in Worcester.

Worcester City Council’s planning committee meets in the Guildhall next Thursday (September 21) and the council’s planning department has recommended the move should be turned down.

“The harm arising is significant and demonstrable insofar as it would compromise an important objective that has shaped the master planning of the urban extension,” the council’s planners said.

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A decision on the potential new traveller site was supposed to have been made by the planning committee 18 months ago but was pulled from the agenda at the last minute.

At the time, a total of 160 objections were made against the bid by landowner Roger Lethem – and that number increased to more than 260 earlier this year.

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The council’s planning officers had advised councillors to turn the application down saying the traveller site would “erode and harm” the landscape.

Rumours began to circulate about a new traveller site when a sign was put up on the field next to the busy Broomhall Way at the start of 2021 by landowner Roger Lethem claiming the site was being put forward as part of a call for potential new sites in the city.

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Worcester City Council dismissed the claims it would be considered – having already ruled it unsafe.

A planning application for the permanent pitches was originally submitted in December 2021 before being withdrawn three months later.

The land lies at the tip of the huge ‘urban extension’ which will see more than 2,600 homes built between St Peter’s in the south of Worcester, Norton and Broomhall.

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Up to 92 homes will be built on the site of the former Ketch car boot sale and more than 240 homes are being built by St Modwen on neighbouring land.

St Modwen, which is building some of the thousands of homes planned for the south of Worcester, said the move was “inappropriate.”

Mr Lethem did not respond to our request for comment.

The planning committee meets in the Guildhall from 3pm on September 21.