A group of travellers have set up an illegal encampment on the Toys R Us car park at Westbrook, Warrington.
Around eight vehicles including caravans and vans have parked up on the rear car park.
Meanwhile another group is still encamped on an over flow car park at Orford Park Jubilee Hub.
The council has a court hearing to move the Orford Park travellers on at Halton magistrates court tomorrow, Friday, after they ignored previous council notices to vacate the land.
A Warrington Travellers Task Group has been set up by the council and had its initial, introductory meeting earlier this week.
The group is made up of senior officers, elected members and is chaired by Cllr Russ Bowden.
While it is not a decision-making group, it will consider the key issues in terms of planning for travellers, and make recommendations to the executive board.
A key focus for the Task Group will be a transit site in Warrington which the council has set aside £2m to fund.
The group will be considering/assessing a wide range of sites over the coming months on private and council owned land, before making a recommendation for a site to the executive board.
The Orford Park travellers
7 Comments
It had it’s initial meeting after thinking about calling it for a few months, the main item discussed was “Date of next meeting” but they couldn’t agree…………meanwhile back in the real world, the travellers are back.
Are so many coming here at the moment and ignoring notices to leave to try and force the council into providing them with the costly £2million transit site more quickly ? Seems it’s working…….
Not sure that they want the transit site Dizzy, because once there is one, the Police have the powers to move them on more quickly. I recall from my time on the Council that sometimes there were fall outs between traveller families on settled sites, resulting in one family leaving and going out on the road. My thought is that Parliament needs to revisit the current legislation. It is interesting to note that Halton Borough Council, with its out of the way transit site in Runcorn has seen a great reduction in the number of illegal encampments. I have visited that site, it is very well run, clean and tidy, and because of its location, there are no problems between the travelling and the local communities. I hope that the Task Group has more success than the one that I served on….which ended in acrimony.
Thanks for the reply Paul. I’ve been past Halton’s transit site on Warrington Road and yes it did look tidy although quite small. I seem to remember that it only has about 15 pitches and they are limited to stays of no longer than 3 months.
I understand that having a transit site gives the police more powers to move illegal encampments on but am I right in thinking that it still stands that the police can ONLY use those powers IF there there is a suitable pitch/pitches available on a caravan/transit site elsewhere in the local authority area?
Re the task group and WBC plans for a transit site I think one of the things that is rattling most people about this is the fact that the council are still not giving any information at all regarding a possible location. If they are indeed looking at areas far away from existing residential they could at least say that. Seems to me that might not be the case with the silence and meetings behind closed doors.
As for meetings ending in acrimony…nothing new there then with WBC ha ha
Yes, I think you might be right regarding availability Dizzy. I understand folk being rattled, it is such an emotive and worrying issue for residents, although I no longer have the info regarding sites looked at when I was on the previous Task Group, I seem to recall the initial number was in the many hundreds, with most being crossed off very quickly, and in the end none were deemed appropriate to move to the planning application stage. I think that the key site criteria this time is a remote location, so exactly where such sites are, I don’t really know, and since I retired last May, I have had no involvement with WBC.
as an after thought….re the transit site on Warrington Road Halton, why aren’t the ones coming to Warrington booking to stay on there as it’s only 10 minutes up the road from here if that.
For a group of people who don’t really get a great education, they’re certainly running rings around the suits at WBC.
The new game now seems to be to ignore the first order to move. They’ve obviously tested this method and found it works.
Somebody needs to work out whether or not it’s against the law to roll up and park anywhere they like, including Council land, and if it is then don’t just be happy to move them on, get them fined…I never ever see any convictions.