Like other councils – such as on Ealing Common – the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames has unauthorised traveller camps on council land. As the west London borough points out, under present practice it can take two to three weeks to secure a Removal Order; and evicted travellers can move to nearby borough property.
The High Court this month agreed to a temporary borough-wide preventative injunction to protect all Richmond Council’s parks, open spaces and highways. The council says that this will expedite matters and prevent encampments relocating to other council land. The temporary injunction will last for three months; then the Council will apply for a permanent measure.
Martin Elengorn, Richmond Cabinet Member for Environment, Planning and Sustainability, said: “We regularly see a number of illegal traveller camps in our borough. Not only do the vehicles damage our parks and open spaces, but the community are deterred from using the parks. There is also occasional anti-social behaviour.
“When this happens, residents ask the Council and local police to remove the travellers swiftly. However, we have to work within the law and the current process is lengthy. This new temporary injunction, will speed up the process, apply across all Council land and act as a deterrent to future would-be campers.”
As featured in the March 2019 print issue of Professional Security magazine, Home Secretary Sajid Javid last month said he was to consider whether to make it a criminal offence for travellers to set up camps on land they are trespassing on. That would be instead of trespassing being defined in law as a civil matter. It’s the latest step as the Government tries to answer anger from councils and businesses that have to clean up after travellers. To read the March magazine and previous issues online, visit the ‘magazine‘ part of the website.
Sajid Javid said: “The vast majority of travellers are law-abiding citizens – but illegal sites often give an unfair, negative image of their community and cause distress and misery to those who live nearby. There is a widespread perception that the law does not apply to travellers and that is deeply troubling. The result of our initial consultation was clear – people want to see greater protection for local communities and for the police to be given greater power to crack down on trespassers.”
