Barriers to be put up at 15 sites in Burnley and Padiham to stop Travellers - Lancashire

From the Lancashire Telegraph

A crackdown will see anti-Traveller barriers installed at 15 public open spaces in Burnley and Padiham.

Councillors are set to approve a £30,000 fund to stop trespassing in the borough after action had to be taken against 20 illegal camps in the past two years.

Among measures to be put in place are new gates, boulders blocking access to the areas and ‘height barriers’ to stop caravans getting on to the sites.

Landmarks such as Towneley’s nine-hole golf course and Bank Hall marina are among those recommended for protection.

And housing clearance areas in south-west Burnley, Daneshouse and Burnley Wood are also deemed worthy of safeguards.

Each illegal camp is estimated to cost the taxpayer around £1,300 – ranging from legal fees to clearance work for leftover waste and flytipping. And it can often take at least 14 days to move them on when they arrive.

Coun John Harbour, the executive member for leisure and culture, said: “In recent years, councils across East Lancashire have seen an increase in the number of illegal Travellers’ sites. These cause much distress to residents and leave the council with a bill for moving them off and cleaning up afterwards.

“Burnley Council does what it practically can to make its land secure but we can’t fence off everywhere and travellers often come equipped to force their way onto a site.

“However, the council is determined to do what we can to prevent Travellers illegally setting up on our land and these additional security measures will make it more difficult for them.”

“I want to assure residents that the council is doing what it can to tackle the problem of Travellers by trying to prevent them illegally getting onto sites in the first place and, if they do, moving them off and tidying up as quickly as possible.”

In 2011 there were eight Traveller encampments on council-owned land, totalling 103 days, but so far in 2012 there have already been 12 separate illegal encampments, totalling 129 days.

Leisure head Simon Goff, in a report to councillors, said: "The Travellers have shown a preference for hard-surfaces sites such as car parks and ball games areas and have gained access to sites which are left open by cutting locks and moving boulders that have been placed to prevent access.

"The occupation of sites has been accompanied by problems of flytipping of domestic and commercial waste and the fouling of the sites with human excrement.

"The encampments cause significant concern to local residents and give rise to complaints that the council is not doing enough to tackle the problem."

The longest-running saga of recent times was the camp in Clough Street, in south-west Burnley, which took nearly a month to resolve.

Council bosses have been able to remove Travellers more easily recently after streamlining their approach to securing county court orders against the encampments.

Height barriers and better quality locks, along with boulders, are being considered for a number of sites, also including car parks and recreation grounds. The borough’s executive is expected to rubberstamp the proposals on Tuesday.