Travellers move caravans into popular park after council workers open gates 'for health and safety reasons' - Sussex

From the Daily Mail

Locking the gates to the public park must have seemed the best way to prevent Travellers getting in and setting up an illegal camp.

But such common sense is no match for the diktats of health and safety – even if it is the Travellers’ own determined efforts to get in that are creating the risk.

So for the second time in six months the gates to Wild Park, on the outskirts of Brighton, were unlocked and a convoy of caravans admitted to the conservation area.

It was decided that the Travellers’ attempts to get round the locked gate – including mounting the pavement and driving over mounds built with the specific purpose of keeping them out – was putting them at risk of injury.

In was only in August last year that the gate to Wild Park was unlocked because of similar fears that the tTravellers might hurt themselves or other road users by trying to get in.

And, like last time, the police cannot get involved because the Travellers were let on to the park. So once again the taxpayer faces a costly civil court action to get them off the site – and an expensive clean-up after they have moved on.

Yesterday a spokesman for Green Party-led Brighton and Hove City Council said: ‘The gate was opened on the agreement of council officers and police officers as a measure to avoid danger to road users.

‘This has been done before and all enforcement options are being kept under review.’ It means local residents will once again be put off using the park, Brighton and Hove’s largest local nature reserve.

Last year the unofficial camp swelled to 50 caravans, which stayed for up to a fortnight before they could be evicted. A repeat performance of the farcical situation began when Travellers attempted to get in five days ago.

Residents then watched in horror as officials opened the gates to let the convoy of 19 caravans in at 6pm on Thursday.

If the gates had remained locked, any Travellers could have been evicted immediately because they would have been committing an offence under Section 61 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act.

The latest arrivals in the park are a mixture of Irish Travellers and English Gypsies, the council says, some of whom arrived after being evicted from a car park at a sports centre.

Figures show that town halls were left with a £1.2 million bill last year for dealing with travellers who illegally pitch their caravans on council-owned land.

The bill, which has to be met through council tax payments, included clearing up hazardous waste dumped by the travellers, providing security guards around their illegal camps and even putting in portable toilets for them.

In total, the bill came to around £400,000 each for legal costs, the clean-up and the expenses to secure the site after the Travellers had been evicted.

The results from a Freedom of Information survey revealed the council that last year faced the biggest bills for dealing with illegal Travellers was Leeds (£211,153) with Brighton and Hove in second place (£194,147).

Jonathan Isaby, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Cleaning up after illegal sites costs taxpayers a fortune as does the policing of sites so it’s vital a long term and sustainable solution is found.

‘Residents are often left fuming when they have to clean up after anti-social behaviour while some are allowed to openly flout the law.

‘The best solution is to ensure legal pitches are available to Travellers, thereby allowing the police to take a tougher line on those camping illegally.’