Call for bailiffs as city seen as a ‘soft touch’ by travellers
COUNCIL chiefs are set to hire teams of bailiffs to kick travellers off parks – and stop Birmingham being seen as an “easy touch”.
Professional bailiffs will be taken on to combat soaring numbers of caravans on public land.
Birmingham City Council has just two workers responsible for evictions and they have been outnumbered and intimidated by travellers.
Public protection committee member Des Flood, Conservative councillor for Bartley Green, said: “There is a perception that this city is an easy touch. People are stopped from using their own play areas, parks and football pitches while the travellers are there – and that is hard to swallow. As a council we look ineffective, like we have no clout.”
Environmental protection officer Mark Wolstencroft told the committee that they have been criticised for not offering a seven-day service and that hired help from bailiffs would be an answer. He added: “A further issue is the increase in the size of the encampments and the corresponding health and safety ramifications in dealing with larger groups of travellers who are increasingly intimidating towards officers, often despite police presence”.
“An option being explored is to procure the services of professional bailiffs to conduct the on-site interactions and lead on any enforcement. This has gone to procurement and the responses are in the process of being assessed.”
A report to the committee revealed that there were 37 evictions in 2013/14 with an average of less than six caravans per camp. During 2015/16 this rose to 61 camps evicted with an average of 16 caravans per site. The council has also increased the use of two-day evictions, rather than seven days and is looking at injunctions to protect specific parks including Selly Oak Park and Selly Oak Recreation Ground, both of which were heavily targeted this year.
Walsall Council has recently secured injunctions on its major parks giving them the power to serve travellers with 24-hour eviction notices. The council is also in talks with neighbouring Sandwell about setting up an official site for travellers on the border. It also has plans for two sites on disused industrial land and a car park in Nechells.
The only existing official site, at Tameside Drive Castle Vale, is unavailable as it has been permanently occupied by the Doherty family and their caravans for more than a decade. Despite several legal battles the council has been unable to evict them.