TWO gipsy families who have set up camp in Cricklade will be able to stay - if they meet planning conditions.

The gipsies, who have been based at Pasture Paddocks in Malmesbury Road since October, are living in four touring caravans at the site.

The Gipsy Council has applied to North Wiltshire District Council to use the site for two mobile homes, two amenity blocks and the four touring caravans.

At the NWDC planning meet last Wednesday the decision was delegated to officers to approve the application subject to a number of conditions being met. However there was opposition to the plans, not least because the plan was retrospective.

NWDC and Cricklade town councillor Mike Hatton said: "It's like Houdini; one day it wasn't there and the next day it was: walls, caravans, the lot."

Sections of the Human Rights Act state the gipsy way of life should be protected by providing them with permanent bases.

Cllr Hatton said: "I respect gipsy human rights. If they had come to the council offices and discussed it at the beginning I would be in a different mind about it."

Councillors expressed concerns that the site is highly visible from the outside and has begun to look like a housing estate with the addition of satellites outside the caravans.

NWDC case officer John Simmonds said: "Conditions include restrictions on external lighting, how TV aerials are going to be positioned and the amenity blocks being reduced to half original size.

"If we have got all those things resolved we will be able to grant permission, if not, then it will go back before the committee."

At the meeting, Maggie Smith, senior member of the Romany Gipsy Council Bendell, said that it was very important to provide sites to keep Romany status.

She said: "We want to teach our youngsters all our ways and customs and preserve our way of life."