Travellers site

Only two months ago, this ex-landfill site was closed for ten days because of methane gas.

Do the travellers really want to live on a rubbish tip? Who knows what illnesses or cancers will appear in a few years. If they do fall ill, could Brighton and Hove City Council be sued for neglect?

I went to the council meeting on August 13. What a farce. The result was a foregone conclusion.

When travellers are illegally camped at Race Hill it’s a no-go area as dogs are allowed to run wild and people feel intimidated.

People are already nervous about going to Sheepcote Valley and it will be worse if travellers are allowed to stay there permanently.

Also, the proposed site is for only about 12 pitches. Does the council really think it will stop there? There will still be illegal camps at Race Hill, just as there is now. The Horsdean site is for 23 pitches but there are many more vans camped there.

There is already an official permanent caravan site at Sheepcote Valley which is not built on the tip. No further developments should be built.

The Whitehawk estate, near the site, has been riddled with problems partly caused by antisocial behaviour. It is obvious that having the travellers site so close to the estate will exacerbate the situation.

The valley is a wealth of wildlife and plants and it should remain so. Hundreds of people, of all ages, use it every day, walking their dogs, running, horse riding or letting their children play there.

There has been no thought of what the residents want. We have never been consulted by anyone from the council.

Anne Glow, Albourne Close, Brighton

May I join Arthur Bird (Letters, August 18) in condemning the disgraceful lack of democratic process demonstrated by Brighton and Hove City Council’s scrutiny committee in upholding the decision to site a travellers site at the old BMX track off Wilson Avenue.

It clearly brings into question the whole process by which the council arrives at decisions, which appears undemocratic, unaccountable and wholly unacceptable. More pertinently, this process makes it impossible to challenge decisions.

I suggest that the secrecy displayed, until brought to light by councillors Gill Mitchell, Warren Morgan and Craig Turton is more in line with a dictatorship than democracy. If this is the future of how the council conducts business it does not auger well for residents of this city. If Councillor Geoffrey Theobald believes he is acting in the best interests of residents, I suggest he has the decency to allow independent scrutiny of the decision- making process in this case.

Laurence Ling, Wilson Avenue, Brighton