Relief as vans are moved on - Derbyshire

From the Ilkeston Advertise

A group of Travellers caused concern for the council this week when they arrived on an Ilkeston car park, days before the Charter Fair.

Furious residents took to social media to complain about the nine caravans which pitched up on Pimlico last Tuesday and stayed until Thursday, leaving mess behind them for council staff to clean up.

After being served eviction notices and fixed notice penalties by the council, the Travellers moved on to private land in the Manners Industrial Estate where they stayed until Sunday.

It is now the third time this year that travellers have set up camp at the town centre car park, taking up valuable parking spaces on market days.

One market trader said: “Normally we use the car park for our vans, where we keep our stock. But we didn’t want to take the risk of them being broken into.”

Director of operational services at Erewash, Phil Wright, said of the mess left behind: “Unfortunately, the only way to charge someone with fly tipping is to clearly identify the offender and issue them with a fixed notice penalty.

“As the waste left behind by the Travellers, such as TV aerials and empty food boxes, was not clearly identifiable to one person, we are therefore unable to take any further action.

“The site has since been cleaned by our Street Scene team and we are now confident that it is back to the previous high standards that it had been before the Travellers’ arrival.”