Somerset Council has rejected calls to declare a state of emergency over Glastonbury's site shortage after a heated appeal at the authority's executive on Tuesday, 1 April.

At the heart of the row is a growing number of people living in vans or on unauthorised land in and around the town, including Glastonbury residents, as well as the wider lack of temporary and permanent provision for traveller communities. The council said the pressure is real, but not one it considers appropriate to class as an emergency.

Councillor Susannah Hart told the meeting urgent action was needed, saying around 200 people were thought to be living roadside or on an un-designated site in the Beckery area. She urged the executive to back an emergency declaration over what she called the "dire need" for temporary and meanwhile traveller sites across Somerset, with Glastonbury under particular strain.

Hart said the town had been left to carry the burden for too long. She also pointed to concerns over anti-social behaviour, saying local residents, visitors and businesses were being affected by the lack of a proper solution.

But the picture in Glastonbury is not as simple as people being moved on. Many of those living in vans are part of the town itself, and the argument laid bare a harder truth: this is as much a housing and provision issue as it is a question of enforcement.

Councillor Federica Smith-Roberts, Somerset Council's portfolio holder for communities, council housing, culture, equalities and diversity, said she understood the challenges facing the town. She said work was already under way on a "meanwhile site" in Glastonbury for vehicle-dwellers, alongside separate work on a business case for a temporary stopping point for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities.

She said a feasibility study was also being commissioned to look at further options across Somerset. But while calling the issue "pressing and important", she said it was not appropriate to declare an emergency, especially when set against other severe pressures across the county, including very high levels of rough sleeping.

That response drew a line under the request, but not the wider problem. The council said the issue raised by Hart covered two distinct groups and two distinct circumstances. What links them is the same unresolved problem: not enough safe, lawful places for people to stay.

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That shortage has been hanging over Glastonbury for years. The £23.6m Glastonbury Town Deal includes plans for off-road accommodation for the town's non-bricks and mortar community, aimed at giving people a safer place to live while also unlocking regeneration in Beckery, including the Baily's Buildings project.

In mid-2023, the council unveiled plans for a new site on land north of Porchestall Drove, made up of 21 temporary transit pitches and 19 permanent pitches. But those plans were pulled in early 2024 because of flooding concerns.

A different site was later bought by the council, though its location has not been made public, and a fresh planning application is expected later this year. Until then, the gap between need and provision remains firmly in place.

The issue has also been taken up by Glastonbury and Somerton MP Sarah Dyke, who met councillor Ewan Cameron, Sergeant Simon Lancey from the Glastonbury beat team and the manager of the town's Premier Inn in late March to discuss caravans on Morland Road and nearby streets.

Ms Dyke said caravans were obstructing visibility at the car park exit and warned this could lead to an accident. But she also said simply displacing van-dwellers elsewhere was "not a realistic solution" — not for businesses, not for staff and guests, and not for the people living on the roadside themselves.

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Original reporting: LDRS/Daniel Mumby