A councillor has urged the Somerset Council to declare a state of emergency over a historic town’s escalating van-dweller situation.
Councillor Susannah Hart, who represents the festival-hosting town of Glastonbury, raised the issue during a communities scrutiny committee meeting in Taunton last Thursday.
According to the most recent data from late February, 131 individuals are residing in vans, caravans or motor homes on Glastonbury’s roadsides, with a “significant number” experiencing “complex needs” including mental health difficulties, chronic health conditions or substance dependency.
“I do feel now that we’re in a situation where actually we need to call this what it is – a state of emergency with relation to the lack of availability of a travellers’ site,” Cllr Hart told the meeting.
She accused the authority of progressing at “a snail’s pace” in addressing the crisis. The scale of the problem has reached what residents describe as “saturation point”, with the town now hosting more van-dwellers per head of population than anywhere else in Britain.
Somerset Council has three dedicated sites for travellers, which are managed by Elim Housing: Chubbards Cross in Ilton (near Ilminster), Marsh Lane in Tintinhull (near Yeovil), and a small site in Pitney (between Langport and Somerton).
Cllr Hart provided updated figures from March 25 showing 138 people living on roadsides, with an additional 80 occupying an unofficial site within the town.
She drew a stark comparison with Bristol’s well-documented struggles, noting that if Glastonbury’s problem were proportionally equivalent to the larger city’s, there would be only 12 caravans in the Somerset town.
Chubbards Cross in Ilton has been designated as a traveller site
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“From what I see, the struggles that these people are facing are huge,” Cllr Hart acknowledged, adding that she believed no committee members were indifferent to the welfare of those involved.
Somerset Council has been working to establish a dedicated site for the town’s “non-bricks and mortar” community, with central government funding allocated through the £23.6million Glastonbury town deal.
Initial proposals put forward in mid-2023 for a site north of Porchestall Drove, which would have provided 21 temporary transit pitches and 19 permanent ones, were abandoned in early 2024 due to flooding concerns.
A subsequent application for a solar farm on the same land was rejected in October 2025.
Glastonbury Town Council has designated sites for travellers
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The council acquired an alternative site during the summer of 2024, though its location remains undisclosed, and a fresh planning application is anticipated later this year.
Cllr Hart noted that Glastonbury Town Council was “happy to consider” offering some of its own land as a temporary transit site with appropriate utilities.
Other councillors offered mixed reactions to the emergency declaration proposal, with some suggesting the terminology was “sensationalising” the situation.
Independent Councillor Hazel Prior-Sankey, who has worked on traveller issues since the early 1990s, expressed support for ongoing initiatives while recalling fierce opposition she had encountered previously.
The council was encouraged to declare a state of emergency
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“To say they were hostile was an understatement; actually, they burned an effigy with my name on it at Hatch Beauchamp,” she said of one past meeting.
“We have to remember that these are human beings – they need somewhere to put the van in which they live.”
Councillor Marcus Kravis cautioned that any new accommodation must be carefully positioned to genuinely suit residents’ requirements.
The Liberal Democrat councillor noted that previous sites had failed due to poor location choices.
Independent Councillor for the Upper Tone ward Gwilym Wren acknowledged the intractable nature of the challenge, stating: “This is not an easy nut to crack.”