A FAMILY of travelling showpeople has pleaded to West Craven councillors to allow it to establish a winter base at Salterforth Quarry, Barnoldswick.

The scheme for the former scrapyard off Moor Lane was recommended for refusal at the West Craven Committee of Pendle Council on Tuesday at its meeting in Barnoldswick, but a decision was deferred by councillors who called for a site visit and for more information.

Frank Lee of Lee’s Amusements wants to turn the former Chris Watson and Sons vehicle dismantlers, scrap metal dealers and parts sales depot into a storage for caravans and around 10 vehicles, which he and his family use for their travelling fairgrounds.

Karen Lee, speaking on behalf of her husband, Frank and son, told the meeting that the family was fifth generation showpeople and had looked for a suitable site across Burnley and Pendle for seven years.

She said the family travelled across the country and were on the road for nine months of the year, returning to their base in the winter, between November and February.

Without such a base, the family would have to live at the side of the road, she told the meeting. "We have been living in Kelbrook for some time, we do a lot of work locally and across the country. Everywhere we have looked has already been taken up, " she said, explaining that sites were being snapped up for residential developments.

Salterforth Quarry was the only suitable and available site the family could find that was affordable, she told the meeting, adding that impact on the area would be minimal, with far less movements than the previous use as a scrapyard.

"We are a small family unit trying to keep our tradition going. With prices of land escalating we don't stand a chance," she said.

The application was recommended for refusal on the grounds including it being an unsustainable location and an unsafe access, but a decision was deferred for a site visit.

In a report to the committee, it is stated there is 'no identified need to make provision for sites for travelling showpeople, or any other gypsy and traveller communities in Pendle and therefore the consideration of this application begins from a standard planning balance rather than one weighed in favour of the development by an unmet identified housing need."

A supporting statement lodged alongside the application states the Lee family currently live on an approved site at Canal Way, Burnley Road, Altham.

However, the site has become unsuitable for the family, and given it is the only rental site in the area, provides the family with very little in the way of other options.

The supporting document reads: “We would be homeless within a month, with nowhere to go.

“This uncertainty and the lack of any other available or deliverable travelling showman’s sites in either Pendle or Burnley resulted in our decision to source a site that would provide a settled and permanent base in a suitable location.

"It would provide stability for our family and space for our business on the former Chris Watson and Sons site.”