A PLANNING application will be submitted this week for a controversial Gypsy and traveller site.

Denbighshire County Council is proposing a permanent residential site for an extended family living in Denbighshire, at Green Gates Farm East near St Asaph, just off the A55.

The site will be home to six households of an extended family that is already resident in the county and will be managed by Denbighshire Housing with residents paying rent and council tax through a social tenancy agreement.

At the time of a consultation over the winter, the proposal provoked a huge public reaction with more than 770 formal responses and a 4,000-signature strong petition handed in to Denbighshire County Council chiefs.

But, as this will be a formal planning application, members of the public wishing to have their say will have to make fresh submissions.

Once the application forms are validated the proposal is expected to come before the county’s planning committee at the end of the year.

Cllr Peter Scott, mayor of St Asaph, does not believe Greengate's Farm is the correct location for the Gypsy and traveller residential site.

He said: "People of St Asaph have given their views at the Pre Consultation stage in a petition with over 4000 signatures and over 700 written objections.

"We will continue to fight this application on the grounds that the methodology to locate this site was flawed."

Cllr Mark Young, cabinet member for planning, public protection and safer communities, said: “We have a legal and I believe a moral obligation to provide a site and Denbighshire needs to get on and sort this out.”

A spokesman for the council said: “We recognise the strength of feelings, a lot of people have attended the meetings locally. We did not need to do that because it was a pre-planning consultation but we felt it was the right thing to do to have those discussions with local people in the area.”