FEARS have been raised over a potential land slippage at a Traveller site by a railway — which one councillor has said would be “catastrophic”. 

Two mobile homes and two caravans have been parked on a site off Bath Road near Woolhampton.

The two families now living there were given retrospective permission in August last year to stay, but only on several conditions.

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This included investigating how stable the land on the site is, and making sure drainage is sustainable — as the caravans are parked right next to the railway. The condition was to do this by November 30 last year, but that hasn’t happened yet.

Other conditions were removing a shed by September 30 and building two dayrooms by November 30 — but neither has happened yet.

Families living there applied to West Berkshire Council to extend the deadlines on removing the shed and building the dayrooms, to August 30 this year.

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Spencer Copping, representing the applicants, told councillors on the eastern are planning committee on January 8, the delay was because they had ran into “financial difficulty”. He said they need extra time to pay a £9,000 community infrastructure levy to the council.

Although not normally considered in planning applications, personal financial circumstances can be taken into account for Gypsies and Travellers, due to a legal exception.

While councillors voted unanimously to grant the extension, they raised concerns about land stability, especially given how close it is to the railway.

Councillor Alan Macro (Lib Dem, Theale) said he thought the original deadlines to remove the shed and finish the dayrooms were “extremely tight”. He said: “However, it’s very disappointing they haven’t carried out the site investigation and [drainage] work.”

Councillor Graham Pask (Con, Bucklebury) said: “The conditions, I feel, were reasonable. My concern is that we put various other conditions in good faith, which haven’t been complied with.”

He said they need to investigate the land stability to “ensure the public safety”, and to check “that what’s been done is acceptable — drainage must not go onto the Network Rail land”.

He added: “Having been reasonable, I hope that’s repaid. Land slippage could be catastrophic.”

Tony Renouf, the chairman of Woolhampton Parish Council, said: “There must be an obligation in the application to abide by the rules. What measures will be put in place to monitor observance of conditions in the long term?”

Michael Butler, principal planner, said: “Our enforcement officer is very knowledgeable about Gypsies in particular, and is extremely good in monitoring sites. If the parish council raises concerns, we will be straight onto it.”