PLANS to potentially expand a gypsy site next to the Cotswold Way have been met with outrage by local residents.

There has been a family of travellers living at the site in Hartley Lane in Seven Springs, Coberley, for the past two years but Cotswold District Council (CDC) is considering establishing two more 'pitches' there.

In its Local Plan for housing in the district, the council suggests adding two pitches at Seven Springs if there is extra demand for accommodating gypsies.

The current single pitch there includes two static caravans, two touring caravans and a stable on a small field, and any new pitches are expected to be similar.

A petition against the proposed extension, organised by the group Leckhampton Hill Residents Against Inappropriate Development (RAID), has so far received 700 signatures.

RAID chairman Dan Powell is against the site because he feels that it will spoil the landscape, hindering tourism into the area.

He said: “The council have completely ignored locals and the hundreds of residents who come up to enjoy the common and the Cotswold Way every week."

He added: “No ordinary member of public would stand a chance of getting planning permission on this field."

However, a council advisory panel published a paper in November last year which stated that the “site is reasonably well screened” and that therefore the impact on the area would be negligible if more pitches were created.

Further opposition to the plans has come from Coberley Parish Council and the Cotswolds Conservation Board.

A man currently living at the site, who asked not to be named, said he felt there was prejudice against gypsies.

“Gypsies have been around for hundreds of years and people’s opinions haven’t changed, so they’re not going to change now,” he said.

A woman living nearby, who asked not to be named, said the man had been a good neighbour. However, she said she was opposing the potential extra pitches because she was against the “urbanisation” of the area.