THE travellers’ site near Higher Walton could be expanded and made permanent.

Councillors have been invited to approve proposals for 30 caravans on Two Acre Park off Warrington Road to house the ‘extended family’ of people already living there.

The site has a history of being given temporary consent for traveller accommodation but the decision to make it a permanent home for 20 families will be taken at a planning meeting tonight, Wednesday.

Applicant William Smith is asking for the site to be expanded because many of the children who were on the site when it was first opened are now young adults with children of their own. Planning documents say: “It would be unreasonable to expect a thriving community to leave their home after almost 20 years.”

And the applicant says a number of residents have medical conditions which mean they need a settled base to remain registered with their GP.

But Walton Parish Council objects to the plans and said the group are using their ethnicity to ‘bulldoze’ through planning requirements.

A spokesman for the parish council said: “Are citizens not obliged to provide homes for themselves? We ask, are the residents really travellers by habit or has that way of life died and they are now people who like to live in caravans or caravan like buildings?

“Many of the residents of the town scrimp and save in order to provide a home for their family.”

A further 24 letters from neighbours objecting to the plans were received and councillors Sharon Harris and Brian Axcell also raised concerns. Cllr Axcell said: “The reason given is for the accommodation of an increasing extended family. Extended families do not have a right to live together.”

Previous applications for the site to be made permanent have been rejected on the grounds that the area is in the green belt.