FEARFUL villagers are worried that Travellers could pitch-up on their doorsteps after acres of farm land were put up for sale in Alvanley.
For more than five years villagers living in Alvanley and Helsby have tirelessly campaigned against Travellers living on a temporary site in Green Belt land on Towers Lane, Alvanley.
Now less than two weeks after villagers across Helsby, Mickle Trafford, Alvanley and Dunham-on-the-Hill celebrated following the announcement that potential Travellers’ sites would not be developed on their doorsteps fears are growing that a neighbouring field could soon be filled with a fresh influx of caravans.
Concerns that more Travellers could pitch up in the area were raised after more than 25 acres of agriculture land in Commonside, Alvanley were put up for auction on the Denton Clark website.
Now worried residents living near the land are considering clubbing together to buy the fields in order to stop the land being bought by Gypsy and Travellers at the auction – but with each acre costing between £8,000 and £10,000 villagers are worried that the land will just be too expensive for them to save.
Alvanley Parish Council Clerk Derek Bowker said that despite action by Cheshire West and Chester Council’s Executive to move forward with the shortlist of sites the fear of fresh pitches appearing in the village was still very real to home owners and residents.
“People are afraid that the Travellers’ will come and buy this land, there are a lot of rumours that people have seen Travellers looking at the area, but how do we know,” he said.
“We have been told that it is a possibility. But as the land could reach up to £20,000 an acre residents are going to have to pay over the odds if they want to safeguard the land.
“At the moment with the other sites we are really living on a promise from CWaC that the short list will go to planning and that they will have made a decision and have everything up and running by the time the permission runs out at Towers’ Lane in two years time.
“Then they should say now you have to move to the other sites, how that will work we still do not know.”
A spokesperson for Denton Clark Auctioneers said that the auction would be carried out under standard auction procedure and the land could reach more than its current asking price.
The auction of the land will be held on Tuesday September 27 at Rowton Hall Hotel, Rowton, Chester.
Read about the outcome of the auction in next week’s Chester Chronicle
