Number of travellers setting up camp in Walsall falls by two-thirds

There were 12 known settlements in Walsall between January and the start of December last year, compared with just over 50 in the same period in 2013.

Walsall has previously been plagued by problems of travellers illegally setting up, leaving behind costs of tens of thousands of pounds to the council.

The most recent hotspot area in the borough was Palfrey, with caravans stopping on land at Bescot trading estate, Walstead Road, Broadway West and Bescot Crescent twice.

Travellers also set up camp in Bloxwich Lane and Brindley Close, Birchills, and another two times in Goscote Lodge Crescent, Blakenall.

Further reports were in Goscote Lane, Pelsall, High Street, Moxley and Willenhall Lane in Bloxwich.

Action to tackle the issue in some areas has included the installation of £6,000 bollards at Holland Park in Brownhills and £600 on a grass mound at Bentley Haye nature reserve.

A report from the council's interim trading standards manager, Lorraine Boothman, says: "The number of unauthorised encampments within the borough increased significantly in 2013 at odds with the experience in surrounding authorities.

"Figures up to December 2014 now show that the borough has seen a significant fall over the past 12 months. However, it remains a fact that this illegal activity continues to cause a strain on resources."

In the report to the neighbourhoods scrutiny and performance panel she adds: "The number of unauthorised encampments in Walsall reached its peak in 2013 to over 50.

"This was against the trend of unauthorised sites in neighbouring authorities and indeed across the country as a whole which was decreasing.

"There would not appear to be any single identifiable reason, as to why this was the case.

"In 2014, 14 encampments have been reported resulting in 25 telephone complaints, 176 in 2013, to the licensing enforcement team, although two were found not to be unauthorised encampments at all."

In 2013, more than £32,000 was spent tackling the camps through the issuing of legal notices and the associated clean-up of sites.

Walsall became the hotspot for the region and council chiefs were forced to pursue court action regularly. But on other occasions the travellers moved just before the order was granted and even relocated to sites just yards away. It costs £20 to lay information at the magistrates court compared to £175 at the county court