Travellers descend on town to set up new camp - Staffordshire

From the Burton Mail

POLICE are currently investigating whether a group of Travellers have set up camp illegally – just yards away from Burton’s Bargates site.

Staffordshire Police confirmed to the Mail that officers had visited the site after members of the public reported that the group had swooped on the site off High Street on Monday evening.

Eyewitnesses revealed that the Travellers used the quiet of the Easter bank holiday to set up camp, which now includes around 10 caravans and a host of cars and other vehicles.

However, the police have not yet been able to ascertain whether or not the camp is illegal.

Asked about the Traveller encampment, Inspector Tyrone Kerr, commander of the East Staffordshire local policing team, said: “This is something we are aware of. It is our job to find out who these people are and whether they have lawful right to stay there. If this is the case then they are welcome to stop there with the landowner’s permission.”

Insp Kerr said he did not know at this stage whether the Travellers were there lawfully or had been given the landowner’s permission.

Officers are also working with other agencies such as East Staffordshire Borough Council and Staffordshire County Council in order to get to the bottom of the problem.

This is the first time that Travellers have set up camp in the town since last summer.

On that occasion, four caravans and several cars mounted verges and took up car parking spaces at the car park adjacent to Burton Library and the Trent Washlands in June.

Despite being handed an enforcement notice, the Travellers remained on the site for four days, one of which saw police raid the vehicles on the site.

That was the first group of Travellers to set up an encampment in East Staffordshire for more than two years. The previous site had been on the Centrum 100 business park in 2010.