Somerset Council has confirmed plans to allocate new traveller sites across the county – offering hope to towns like Glastonbury where roadside living has become a way of life for many.

The new Local Plan, set to take effect in 2029, will include permanent and transit site targets for gypsies, travellers and travelling showpeople, based on county-wide need. The aim is to prevent ongoing cycles of unauthorised encampments, legal wrangling and people left without safe, stable places to live.

For Glastonbury, where an estimated 300 people are currently living in around 150 vans and caravans, the move is long overdue.

With just 4,000 homes in the town, Glastonbury has a van-to-household ratio 23 times higher than in Bristol. Many of those living roadside are part of the town's long-established alternative and travelling community – people with strong local links who say they want somewhere safe, legal and secure to call home.

Efforts to create new sites locally have hit setbacks. Plans for a dedicated site on Porchestall Drove were dropped in 2024 after the land flooded twice over winter. It's now earmarked for a solar farm.

Another proposal, at the old Morlands industrial estate, is still moving forward. One section has been turned into a car park, while the other is being transferred to a community land trust, which plans to create an off-road living space tailored to the needs of Glastonbury's van-dwelling community.

The council says £108,000 is still set aside for traveller site provision, and has pledged that more permanent and transit options will be explored as part of the Local Plan.

A council spokesperson said: "We are working on securing permanent transit sites for gypsies and travellers.

"The Local Plan will include pitch and plot targets to address the likely permanent and transit site accommodation needs of the gypsy, traveller and travelling show-people communities in the Somerset planning authority area."

Until then, people living roadside continue to rely on public spaces – with some areas seeing added deterrents like bunds, boulders and yellow lines. A Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO), introduced in 2022 to manage encampments, has since lapsed and has not yet been renewed.

While some locals have raised concerns, many in Glastonbury say the real issue is the lack of realistic, safe provision.

Somerset isn't alone. In Taunton, travellers setting up on public parks have cost the town council £20,000 in legal fees so far this year. Somerset Council has yet to publish data on how much it has spent managing unauthorised encampments over the last five years.

The new Local Plan aims to take a county-wide view. It will replace more than half a dozen local planning strategies from the old district councils – including those covering Mendip, Sedgemoor, South Somerset, West Somerset and Taunton Deane – and set out a single framework for land use, housing, and traveller accommodation until 2040.

The only part of the county it won't cover is Exmoor National Park, which has its own planning powers.

Until the new plan is signed off in March 2029, the council is encouraging landowners, community trusts and local groups to come forward with ideas. And for Glastonbury's van dwellers, many of whom have been part of the community for years, it's a sign that a more secure future may finally be within reach.

• H/T - Daniel Mumby, Local Democracy Reporting Service