A family of travellers have asked for permission to stay on an allotment site, as they claim they will have to live on roadsides if evicted. The family, which includes four children, has retrospectively applied to Leeds City Council for planning consent to remain on land off Sandgate Lane in Kippax.
It comes three years after a similar application for a neighbouring allotment in the area was turned down by the council, after more than 1,000 people objected. The new application, which has been submitted on the family’s behalf by Guiseley-based consultants MAS Design, said: “The accommodation proposed is two touring caravans for habitable use as a home for the applicant and his family, who have roots in the community and seek to retain strong cultural links within an area that they have invested in themselves through education and healthcare.
“The caravans would have limited intrusion into the character of the area.” The application also claimed that “Kippax has a surplus of green space and more acutely a surplus of allotment land.”
