Travellers leave camp and move out of town - Cheshire

From This Is Cheshire

AFTER weeks of court orders and hopping from one site to another a group of Travellers are thought to have finally left the town.

Warrington magistrates had ordered the group to leave land off Silver Lane, Risley and Warrington Road, Birchwood, before Easter.

The Travellers were then accused of breaking into the former Oliver Plunkett School site and Shaw Street Rec in Culcheth before setting up camp on private land in Glazebury.

It is understood they have now returned to the Accrington area of Lancashire.

Chief Inspector Jon Ward said: “We have Travellers who come through Warrington fairly regularly because of its position in the north west.

“And we have a Gypsy/Traveller liaison officer, a PC, who works with those communities.

“There are different ways of dealing with the situation. Private landlords get injunctions and then have the power to get bailiffs.

“If they are on council-owned land, it is a similar situation.”

He said police start with negotiations but do have stronger powers to evict if necessary – although that was not needed in this case.

He added: “We deal with each situation individually but on this occasion we didn’t have to move to evict because of the negotiations, the group agreed to move.

“We often will deal with the same communities and the Travellers are like any community. Most people are peaceful who go about their daily lives. They are a minority group and we have a responsibility under the race relations act to work with them.”

A spokesman for Warrington Borough Council said they deal with issues on a case by case basis and took out a number of injunctions over the past few weeks.