- Local services, from the doctors' surgery to the village
school, were overrun after the arrival of hundreds of gipsies last year,
a planning inquiry heard yesterday.
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- Special surgery times had to be arranged to deal with
the travellers after staff and patients were abused.
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- At one point, 350 travellers were registered with the
practice although the highest officially reported occupancy on the site
was 213.
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- The inquiry, in Cambourne, is into an appeal by the travellers
against South Cambridgeshire district council's rejection of retrospective
planning permission for 18 caravans at the site at Smithy Fen, outside
Cottenham, Cambs.
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- Until early last year, the site - which has permission
for 38 pitches - had been occupied for more than 25 years by a settled
community of English travellers. They claimed they were forced out by arrivals
from Ireland and there were now 80 caravans and an estimated 400 people
on the fen.
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- Paula Johnson, the chairman of Cottenham parish council,
told the inquiry that medical and educational facilities struggled to cope
with the influx. Some shopkeepers were planning to close their businesses.
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- She said that reports of anti-social behaviour had risen
to a record 1,332 incidents.
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- But counsel for the travellers claimed that crime had
actually fallen in the village.
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- The inquiry continues.
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- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004.
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