A Glastonbury councillor has called on Somerset Council to declare a "state of emergency" over the number of van-dwellers in the town.
As of February 25 (the most recent figures available), there are 131 people living in vans, caravans or motor homes on the roadside in Glastonbury - of which a "significant number" have "complex needs" such as mental health issues, long-term health conditions or substance dependency.
Somerset Council has been working to secure a site to provide safe accommodation for the 'non-bricks and mortar' community, with central government funding being set aside as part of the £23.6m Glastonbury town deal.
But Councillor Susannah Hart, the Conservative division member for the town, said the council was moving at "a snail's pace" and was not doing enough to tackle this complex problem. She said:
"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.
"We as a council are quite happy to declare emergencies around other issues - this now is an emergency.
"If you consider the numbers in Glastonbury alone, it's 138 on the roadsides as of yesterday [March 25], plus another 80 on a site in the town which isn’t really an allocated site.
"Everyone recognises that Bristol has a huge issue trying to deal with this, but if the size of the problem in Glastonbury was equivalent to the size of the problem in Bristol, there would be 12 caravans in Glastonbury.
"For me to say this needs to be addressed at pace, I think is pointless, because we don't seem to really and truly know what pace is - other than a snail's pace."
Ms Hart said that Glastonbury Town Council was "happy to consider" some land in its ownership being used as a "meanwhile site" (i.e. a temporary transit site where travellers could say with suitable utilities).
She added: "I don't think anyone around this table doesn't care about people's health and well-being. From what I see, the struggles that these people are facing are huge."
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).
The Glastonbury town deal includes the creation of an off-road accommodation site for the ‘non-bricks and mortar’ community in and around the town, providing people with a safe location and enabling other projects within the Beckery area of the town to proceed (such as the ongoing regeneration of the Baily's Buildings).
The council put forward plans in mid-2023 to create a new travellers’ site on land north of Porchestall Drove using some of the town deal funding, comprising 21 temporary transit pitches and 19 permanent pitches.
But these plans were withdrawn in early-2024 due to flooding concerns - with subsequent plans to build a solar farm on the same site being refused in October 2025.
The council purchased a different site in the summer of 2024 (whose location has not been made public), with a new planning application expected to be submitted later in the year.
In addition, a feasibility study has been commissioned to look at new "designated vehicle dweller sites" along with gypsy, Roma and travellers transit sites.
