Cheeky Travellers moved onto Birmingham site as workmen installed rails to stop them

From the Birmingham Mail

CHEEKY Travellers moved on to a site in Birmingham under the noses of workmen who were installing rails to STOP them getting onto the land.

Familes in Bartley Green woke up to find 15 caravans had appeared overnight on open space in Romsey Road.

The site is one of three in the area where the council is installing trip rails to prevent Travellers’ incursions.

Workmen were in the process of putting in the fences, which stand about a foot high, and had stopped work for the night.

When they returned the following morning they discovered the vans and caravans had driven on to the grass through the gaps they had not got round to doing.

But thanks to new beefed-up council powers, they had gone within 48 hours after an eviction notice was served on them by the police.

It is the second time that patch of land has been invaded by Travellers.

They took up residence there, and on Woodgate Valley Country Park, last summer.

After that, the local councillors secured £27,000 in funding to install the rails on open spaces they felt were vulnerable to invasion.

Eight sites in Quinton which suffered similar incursions have also had the rails installed. Bartley Green councillor, Bruce Lines, said: “We couldn’t believe it when we saw they’d moved on to the site,

“Talk about cheeky – it was right under the noses of the workmen and leads us to think someone tipped them off.”

His fellow Bartley Green councillor, Vivienne Barton, said thanks to new powers introduced by the public protection committee, of which she is a member, they were soon gone.

Last October the council got powers allowing officers to move on Travellers within two days – and in urgent cases two hours – as opposed to the previous deadline of seven days.

“Thanks to our new powers, we can now get rid of the Travellers, and all the mess and disruption they bring to a neighbourhood, more quickly,” Coun Barton said.