Transit traveller site could be built in Smethwick

The transit site for caravans could be in the Black Patch area, although sites in Tipton and Oldbury are also being considered.

The idea has been hatched after Sandwell Council saw a 20 per cent rise in traveller camps which has cost £250,000 this year alone in clean-up and legal bills.

It would mean the council could use new police powers to move camps on within 24 hours like neighbouring Walsall Council, which became just the third local authority to successfully obtain an injunction over travellers camps.

It comes after Sandwell Council saw the number of traveller camps on its patch rise by around 20 per cent this year.

This included caravans frequently pulling up both last summer and this year at Black Patch park, where Charlie Chaplin is famously reported to have been born into a gipsy community.

Smethwick Councillor Richard Marshall said: "We are looking at various sites across the borough.

"We have seen in other towns and boroughs that a transit site helps. It gives police the power to force them to move off another site, if a transit site is available."

A transit site is similar to a permanent site, with hard standing, electric hook up and a bathroom, but residents are not allowed to stay beyond a defined period - usually somewhere between 28 days and three months.

Some nearby residents expressed concern at the move.

Rob Wilkes, from Perrott Street, said: "It's not something I would want to see if I looked out my window. They cause problems and mess, but if there is no other alternative what can you do."

Azad Imran, also from Smethwick, said: "I hope they don't cause issues in the park because we don't want that. It could be worrying because who knows what would come next if we have this one site. But then again it might stop them just turning up out the blue."

But others were more positive. Marion Brain, who has lived in nearby Eva Road since 1988, said: "As far as I am concerned I think they should have a proper site.

"It would eliminate the rubbish and if there was a proper place for them to go then it wouldn't be a problem. I haven't got any objections against it."