THE devastation caused by travellers at Birchwood has strengthened the case for a transit site in the Warrington area.
Russ Bowden
Local Cllr Russ Bowden, who is Chair of the Council’s Task Group that is seeking to identify a preferred location for a designated travellers transit site and fellow members of Birchwood Town Council, last night supported the actions of Cheshire Police and other agencies in dealing with a travellers encampment at the former Fox Wood School site.
The travellers arrived on Monday lunchtime and created significant damage to the building before causing the electricity supply to be lost to neighbouring homes. Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service also attended to deal with fires on the site.
Cllr Bowden said “This encampment caused concern within the local community regarding their behaviour. A large number of residents were also inconvenienced by the loss of electricity for a number of hours.”
“As ward members, we were pleased to have the support of Cheshire Police in terms of their visible presence throughout the day and also in exercising their Section 61 powers to remove the encampment on Tuesday morning. This brought the issue to a swift conclusion and avoided the normal legal process for eviction, which can take some time.”
“We were also pleased to have the input from Electricity Northwest, who worked into the early hours of Tuesday morning in order to isolate the former school site and restore power to homes.”
Cllr Bowden added: “Warrington has already seen a significant number of unauthorised encampments across the borough this year. It places a burden on all public agencies to deal with this issue, in terms of effort, clean up and legal costs.
“Providing a transit site would give the authorities greater powers for the immediate removal of unauthorised encampments. It isn’t a reward for travellers – it is about dealing proactively with the situation and avoiding the repeated clash between travellers and the settled community. Situations such as the one in Birchwood this week, as well as others across Warrington, can only strengthen the case for a transit site.”
The search for a suitable site was put on hold prior to the General Election to avoid becoming political but will resume again in July.
Image courtesy Chris Digata
3 Comments
How can this be allowed to happen if the police were in attendance? How can an upturned caravan go unnoticed? Isn’t it anybody’s job to find out who did this, or is getting rid of them such a relief that crimes go unpunished?
Looks like a site that perhaps under guidance a number of charities could have made use of – walking distance from the railway station and on a bus route with scope for transport.
Cambridge has several sites specified for the travelling communities, but still seems to suffer the problems described here Year after year.