Bourne to hate?

PLANS for a travellers’ site in Bournemouth have been thrown out in a surprise U-turn by senior Bournemouth councillors.

Councillors had been expected to back the plan to put a Gypsy and Travellers’ site on land off the Wessex Way at Cambridge Road and Suffolk Road.

On Tuesday, council leader Cllr Stephen MacLoughlin had insisted the site was the “least bad” place to put a transit site with up to eight pitches.

But this morning, all seven members of the cabinet present voted to go back to the drawing board.

Around 80 members of the public were in the council chamber at Bournemouth Town Hall for the debate. Max Clarke, one of the organisers of the campaign against the site, was applauded when he urged councillors to think again.

But Roger Redding of the South West Alliance of Nomads said there was a need for such sites, and the Dorset Race Equality Network warned against discriminating against Gypsies and Travellers.

Three absent members of the cabinet sent apologies, including Cllr Jane Montrose, who had emailed protesters to say she was quitting the cabinet over the issue.

Protester Max Clarke said opponents had 940 signatures online and 700 on paper in a petition against the scheme: “I’m proud of everybody having got together and done this, considering my belief is the council handled this in an appalling way.”

Protesters have collected more than 1,600 signatures opposing the scheme in the week since it was revealed .