Travellers set up an illegal camp in council car park - Staffordshire

From the Burton Mail

TRAVELLERS have set up an illegal encampment just yards from a Burton beauty spot.

The itinerants moved onto the car park adjacent to Burton Library and the Trent Washlands during the early hours of Sunday.

Dozens of concerned walkers contacted the Mail after four caravans and several cars mounted verges and took up car parking spaces — with the group having the audacity to not even pay for a parking ticket.

Following complaints by members of the public, officers from East Staffordshire Borough Council visited the site to complete a detailed investigation into the Travellers’ living and health conditions.

The group have been handed an enforcement notice and ordered to leave the site by noon today or face court action.

However, a welfare assessment has highlighted concerns within the group — resulting in the authority undertaking a search for a different site for them to take up temporary residence in the borough.

A spokesman for the council said: “The authority has served a 24 hour notice to vacate by noon today.

“East Staffordshire Borough Council has carried out a welfare assessment and is in the process of looking for a site for them to pitch up on temporarily.”

Staffordshire Police also revealed that it had received ‘several’ calls from concerned walkers about the illegal encampment.

A spokesman for the force told the Mail: “We can confirm that we received numerous calls about the traveller camp near to the Washlands on Sunday.

“We have liaised with East Staffordshire Borough Council and they have served an enforcement notice on the group.”

This is the first group of Travellers to set up an illegal encampment in East Staffordshire for more than two years.

The previous site had been in Third Avenue, on the Centrum 100 business park, in March 2010.