Traveller site on outskirts of town to be permanent

The last piece of the jigsaw was to agree a 50-year land lease with Machynlleth Golf Club.

This will allow a £1.285 million expansion and upgrade at the traveller site near the town’s cemetery, which was agreed by planners nearly three years ago.

At the site, 0.54 hectares of common land has been de-registered on the north side of the A489 from Newtown.

Natural Resources Wales (NRW) has sold 2.59 hectares to Powys County Council and registered it as common land to the south of the road.

The council's housing solutions manager, Dafydd Evans, said: “The purchase of the land from NRW and the development of the permanent site will ensure that five households are accommodated appropriately, can access services and continue to be an integral part of the Machynlleth community.

“The family have been occupying the site for more than 10 years as an unauthorised encampment.

“The development of a permanent site which will be managed by the housing service will benefit Machynlleth positively.

“In terms of the common land, the exchange of land with NRW-owned land ensures that there is still common land available.

Rent

“The housing service have and will continue to engage with the family when the site is completed.

“They will become council tenants formalising the obligations to each other.”

This means those occupying the site will in future need to pay rent.

Machynlleth county councillor, Michael Williams has said that he supports the proposal.

The extra £10,275 for the deal will come out of the housing general fund budget as the money from the upgrade sits in the council’s capital funding budget.

Powys County Council now intends to offer the new site development out to tender.

It believes that work could start in August. Local authorities in Wales have a legal duty to provide permanent gypsy and traveller sites.

The need for one in Machynlleth was identified back in 2016 and was included in the Local Development Plan.