Travellers transit site mooted for Walsall
A review into how traveller camps are tackled across Walsall has been called for – with the possibility of finding a transit site being looked into.
A number of illegal camps have been set up across Walsall in recent weeks, despite the introduction of a court order last year to help the council remove travellers from sites more quickly than it previously could.
However, cabinet member councillor Ian Shires has said that this just means the council has been ‘moving the problem around’ and said he believes the authority needs to take ‘drastic action’ to try to solve the problem.
He said: “The costs of the incursions so far this year is mounting up into the hundreds of thousands of pounds.
“I have asked for a review of how Walsall Council deals with this problem as even when officers get sufficient evidence together to get injunctions on worst affected sites all that is achieved is moving the problem around.
“The view that the coalition administration is coming to is that we need to take the drastic action of identifying one site in the borough as a transit site.
“By doing this any unauthorised encampments could be dealt with without the need to go through the current process which generally takes between four to five days.”
Councillor Shires added that there was no site identified as a transit site yet.
In May, councillors in Sandwell gave the go-ahead to plans for a temporary transit site near Black Patch Park in Smethwick at a meeting last week.
Derelict land at the corner of Boulton Road and Foundry Lane will house up to 34 caravans at one time and have toilet and washing facilities.
The council was just the third local authority in the country to successfully obtain an injunction from the county court last October and now has increased powers to restrict the setting up of encampments or anti social behaviour at 12 specific sites, including Delves Green Common.
However, In recent weeks, Aldridge Airport, Stubbers Green and Bentley Lane, Willenhall have all been targeted by travellers.
Camps have also been set up in Pelsall Common and King George V playing fields.
Of the current powers the council has to move on travellers from areas not covered by the court injunction, councillor Shires said: “It’s a process which the travellers are well versed in and they know that if officers don’t strictly adhere to it the length of their stay is lengthened.”
The process of moving camps on usually takes three to five days after a court order is granted.
