A FRESH application to build a travellers’ site in Colchester has been lodged because the original planning permission ran out yesterday.

Essex County Council has resubmitted the proposals, approved three years ago by Colchester Council.

Gerard Oxford, borough councillor for High Woods, said his colleagues on the planning committee would now have to go back to square one when considering the proposals.

When the plan for 12 traveller pitches, off Severalls Lane, was approved, the committee was influenced by Government targets, which required the town to provide traveller accommodation.

The targets have now been scrapped and hundreds of homes have been built close to the site since permission was granted, in August 2007.

Mr Oxford, who has consistently campaigned against the plans, alongside High Woods businesses and hundreds of residents, said: “One of the reasons the site was chosen is there were supposedly few people living nearby.

“That is no longer the case. There are a huge number in blocks of flats, just over the bridge from the site, and 1,500 homes have planning permission at Cuckoo Farm. There is still a big burning issue around the access footpath they need to build for the site.

“The farmer owns the land required for the path, the county council has never been able to show otherwise, and he doesn’t want to sell.”

The travellers’ site plans will be coming under further scrutiny, as Mr Oxford’s High Woods Independent group has used its “call in” powers to force a debate on the issue.

Colchester Council has decided to lease Essex County Council the land required, but the call-in means the move will have to be discussed by the finance and audit scrutiny committee on August 31.

If members vote against the lease, the decision will be deferred for consideration by the whole council. A U-turn would mean years of work and hundreds of thousands of pounds invested would have been wasted. The plans will be considered by councillors in the next few weeks.