Meeting to be held over Travellers - Lancashire

From the Lancashire Evening Post

Travellers who moved off private land in Preston have pitched up a few miles away in Walton-le-Dale.

Around half a dozen caravans, with 12 adults and eight children, parked up on a patch of privately-owned land off Duddle Lane in Walton-le-Dale, near to the junction with Chorley Road.

It is understood they relocated to the area on Monday after moving on from private land near the retail area off Queen Street in Avenham, where they had been staying for more than a week.

A meeting was due to be held on Tuesday afternoon between the Travellers, the Walton-le-Dale landowner, South Ribble Council, a Traveller liaison officer from Lancashire County Council and Lancashire police.

The matter was reported to the police on Monday.

However, because the caravans are on private land, the police and local councils are limited in what action they can take to move them on, with responsibility for the ground falling to the landowner.

The borough council had said it facilitated the meeting and will assist with waste removal from the site if necessary.

Walton-le-Dale Coun Mike Nelson said: “It is a piece of land behind a nursing home which I think was down for development.

“The council is looking into it and all the agencies are involved.

“We’ve never had any problems here before.”

The patch of land used to have a bungalow on it but it has since been cleared.

Another group of Travellers upset business owners in Farington in Leyland last month.

A dozen caravans pitched up on a piece of land near the entrance to the Centurion Industrial Estate on April 15.

That attracted complaints from firms that it was making access difficult for delivery drivers.

The Travellers left within a week.