£25,000 - cost of clean-ups - Peterborough

AROUND £25,000 is being spent cleaning up mess left by Travellers in Peterborough every year, new figures have revealed.

The Evening Telegraph can reveal that Peterborough City Council has spent a total of £114,330 tackling the problem over the last four years.

The figures, obtained following a Freedom of Information request, come in the wake of several Traveller camps being set up in the city in recent weeks.

They also follow the Evening Telegraph’s successful campaign to stop school lollipop patrols being axed - which currently costs the council £43,000 a year to run.

The new figures show that during the past year (up until January 24 2012) the council spent a total of £18,130 cleaning up after Travellers had left makeshift campsites.

In 2010/11 the figure was £25,160, in 2009/10 they spent £18,870, in 2008/09 it was £30,340 and during 2007/08 £21,830 was spent.

The figures have also led to further calls for a transit site to be set up in the Peterborough area allowing travellers to stop legally for up to a month.

The council has confirmed it will now set up an all-party committee to “determine the best location for a transit site” which should be decided later this month.

Councillor John Fox, who represents Werrington, where Travellers set up a camp recently, said: “Every time a camp gets set up there is always mess left behind and we have seen this happen numerous times over the past few years.

“The figures sound about right to me - but the key issue is that this is a lot of money which could have been better spent elsewhere.

“In Werrington we had to spend £1,000 of our community leadership fund on buying bollards to secure a site which we thought Travellers would use.

Cllr Fox added: “There are several permanent Traveller sites in the eastern region but what Peterborough needs is a transit site.

“This allows Travellers to stay for up 28 days but once they move on they can’t return for three months.

“A transit site would cut down on these clear -up costs quite substantially.

“The current system is unfair and creates problems. Travellers don’t know their rights so move from site to site and residents end up complaining.”

Peterborough MP Stewart Jackson said: “This is an appalling waste of tax payers money that could have been better spent.

“It also worth remembering that some taxpayers live in the areas that have seen Travellers arrive.

“The government needs to give local authorities appropriate powers to deal with this issue.”

A council spokeswoman said officials would not comment on the figures.

However, council leader Cllr Marco Cereste has welcomed creating the transit Traveller site.

He said: “I think it is something we desperately need in the city.

“It gives us the power to move people on and I hope that gets rid of this regular problem.

“The planned meeting is the first time we will sit down and discuss locations, to which I am very much looking forward.”