Police chiefs want scores more caravan sites set up… rejecting calls for tougher powers 

Police chiefs yesterday backed the creation of scores of new traveller camps.

They also rejected ministers’ plans for a clampdown on illegal sites – flying in the face of widespread concerns about lawless behaviour surrounding such places.

The National Police Chiefs Council recommended that new permanent and transit sites should be set up across Britain for gypsies, Roma and travellers to reduce illegal incursions.

The police leaders also rejected calls for a change in the law to give them tougher powers to target travellers who camp illegally. Earlier this year housing minister Dominic Raab launched a public consultation around unauthorised gypsy and traveller camps.

Rubbish stacked up high at a recently demolished traveller’s camp in the London Borough of Havering

He invited police leaders to consider whether officers need new powers to evict travellers by criminalising those who settle on land without permission.

Mr Raab said he was ‘deeply troubled’ by allegations about the behaviour of travellers and ‘particularly by the widespread perception that the rule of law does not apply to those who choose a nomadic lifestyle’.

Ministers are considering a new offence that would extend the scope of aggravated trespass. The offence currently applies only if a traveller has camped illegally and is shown to have intimidated or obstructed the landowner.

The consultation asks whether it is time to create a new criminal offence that would allow action against unauthorised camps that ‘substantially damage land or cause serious inconvenience to the landowner or other lawful users of the land’.

The move would significantly lower the legal threshold for criminal action against illegally camped travellers.

Police have rejected calls for them to be given extra powers to come down harder on travellers

Police have rejected calls for them to be given extra powers to come down harder on travellers

But yesterday the NPCC and the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners claimed criminalisation of travellers was not the answer. Instead there should be a ‘significant increase’ in the number of permanent and temporary sites across the country, they said.

In a joint statement they said: ‘The police are not in the business of providing accommodation, but this is such a crucial issue for the gypsy and traveller community that encouraging its provision has become part of the NPCC focus.

‘Not just new council sites are required. A variety of transit and permanent developments are needed, run either by councils or privately, or indeed housing for those who wish to be housed.’

The national police spokesman on gypsy, Roma and traveller issues, Acting Chief Constable Janette McCormick, called for every local authority to consider establishing permanent and temporary sites for travellers. She said it would boost ‘community relations’, reduce demand on police resources and promote ‘social inclusion’.

Dominic Raab, the housing minister, said he had been troubled by allegations of lawlessness among travelling communities

Dominic Raab, the housing minister, said he had been troubled by allegations of lawlessness among travelling communities

Disabled 74-year-old attacked after she tried to stop invasion 

A pensioner who single-handedly stopped travellers from setting up a camp on a nature reserve demanded the police be given greater powers.

Sarah Freeman, who is blind in one eye and needs a walking stick, was knocked over and her false teeth flew out during the altercation last year.

But the 74-year-old stood her ground and the travellers gave up their planned invasion when the police finally arrived.

74-year-old Sarah Freeman, who is blind in one eye and needs a walking stick, was attacked last year

74-year-old Sarah Freeman, who is blind in one eye and needs a walking stick, was attacked last year

Miss Freeman believes it would have taken the police and the local authority months to move the travellers from Hilly Fields in Colchester, Essex, if they had set up camp. She told the Mail yesterday: ‘The police do need more powers.

‘They have to go to court to get it done legally unless the travellers are causing damage.

‘I can understand why a lot of people want the police to have stronger powers to move them on.

‘I would not object to the travellers at all if they weren’t so destructive. When I was young gypsies respected the environment. Nowadays, they leave endless rubbish behind. They cut trees down.’

Asked about her intervention in June 2017, she added: ‘I would do it all again.’

Retired postal worker Miss Freeman, who lives alone in Colchester following the death of her long-term partner, was left with bruised arms following her intervention.

Two men admitted assault and were handed fines and community punishments.

Mrs McCormick, the acting chief of Cheshire Police, said there was a ‘moral argument’ for local authorities to act because many police officers cannot move on those illegally staying in caravans on private and public land because there is no authorised site to send them to. More traveller camps would free up police resources and reduce the cost to councils of cleaning up illegal sites, she argued.

She also suggested that criminalising travellers who stay on public places such as school playing fields would discriminate against a single ethnicity. Mrs McCormick also insisted it was a ‘myth’ that traveller sites breed crime and suggested councillors and MPs should educate people.

The 2011 census found that 63,000 people in the UK identified themselves as either gypsy, traveller or Irish traveller. However, experts believe this figure may be an underestimate.

Local authorities have spent almost £35million creating 1,800 traveller pitches since 2012 – although councils agree there is a need for more than 5,000.

There are now estimated to be 3,700 caravans on unauthorised sites around the United Kingdom

There are now estimated to be 3,700 caravans on unauthorised sites around the United Kingdom

Official statistics show the total number of traveller caravans rose by 32 per cent in the decade to January 2017. There are now estimated to be 3,700 caravans on unauthorised sites – about 16 per cent of the total.

Yesterday the chairman of the Gypsy and Traveller Council, Phien O’Reachtagian, suggested that taxpayers should pay for up to six permanent and temporary gypsy sites in every county council area. He warned that if travellers were criminalised for illegal encampment, they would band together, leaving police facing a ‘mini Dale Farm scenario’.

This was a reference to the notorious camp in Essex where up to 1,000 travellers lived illegally until they were finally evicted by police amid violent scenes.

But yesterday Andrew Selous, a Tory MP who has raised the issue in the Commons, said: ‘It’s complete rubbish that the police and local authorities have sufficient powers. The irony is that many of the travellers are Irish and they come to this country to avoid tougher trespass laws there.’

Norman Flint, vice chairman of Ramsden Crays Parish Council, which spent years tackling the Dale Farm travellers, said more legal sites would not solve the problem.

He added: ‘Let’s face it – travellers are a law unto themselves.’

The trail of destruction – From Eton to beauty spots 

60 CARAVANS AT ETON

The prestigious public school had to seek an eviction order after 300 travellers in around 60 caravans descended on its football fields, just 100 metres from the school buildings.

Huge divots of mud were created by the arrival of mobile homes and cars in 2002, when Prince Harry was a pupil. Police eventually moved them on.

BREWERY SMASHED

A GROUP of 100 wreaked havoc on Thwaites Brewery, Lancashire, last month, stripping wiring, trashing offices and leaving human waste on the carpets.

Police raided an illegal camp in Leverhulme Park, Bolton, 12 miles away, and arrested five men.

Family business Thwaites had to stop production at the 211-year-old brewery having been left with £100,000 worth of damage.

250 tons of rubbish

SOILED mattresses, bath tubs and refrigerators were among 250 tons of rubbish strewn on green fields in south-east London.

Travellers camped on private land near Bickley Manor, Bromley, last June. Locals who co-own the fields were told it would cost £100,000 for the clear-up job.

CRICKET NETS SLASHED

HUNDREDS of gypsies had to be evicted after setting up an illegal camp in the grounds of a £10,500-a-year private school – and slashing their cricket nets.

The group set up 50 caravans in the grounds of King Henry VIII School in the upmarket suburb of Earlsdon, Coventry.



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