Outrage at ‘no action’ on travellers
Kirklees ‘must get tough on site mess’
A COUNCILLOR has accused the authorities of double standards after travellers left a mess in Mirfield, including human faeces.
Members of the travelling community allegedly broke their way on to Old Bank Rec last week.
West Yorkshire Police responded to the break-in after a padlock was allegedly smashed off barriers protecting the council land.
But residents have claimed police officers failed to prevent the travellers from setting up camp and watched as caravans drove onto the site.
People living around the field are now up in arms, after travellers were repeatedly caught defecating around the edge of the field in full view of people living in adjacent homes.
One incident was filmed by a local resident, showing a man emerging from the undergrowth pulling up his trousers and then driving his BMW car a few yards back to his caravan, deliberately sliding it around, damaging the grass in the process.
The travellers’ behaviour has caused much frustration in the community with locals venting their anger in comments on the Mirfield Matters Facebook group.
One person said: “I just walked down the pathway which backs on to Old Bank playing fields, where the travellers are squatting, and was disgusted to see that they have been using it as a toilet There’s dirty nappies and piles of human excrement all around.
“They can’t even be bothered to do it out of sight at the bottom of the field, the dirty filthy ****. Surely, as a health issue, the council must act.”
Mirfield Tory, Clr Martyn Bolt, said the lack of will to prosecute by Kirklees Council and West Yorkshire Police was infuriating.
He told the Examiner that officials had told him that “technically” they could seek to prosecute, but they felt it was unlikely to succeed and so were not pursuing it.
He said: “They’re second-guessing that it won’t work. The council and the police have a duty to look after the public. It’s not for them to guess what magistrates or anybody else might say.
“If members of the ‘ settled community’ behaved like this, we’d be prosecuted. In the past, council officials have gone to strong lengths to get covert evidence and then prosecuted people for defecating in public.
“In 2007, there were repeated incidents in Cleckheaton, and Kirklees deployed covert CCTV and successfully prosecuted.
“In this case, we’ve got huge amounts of human waste and the council is doing nothing. Residents are ringing up and complaining and are being told nothing can be done.
“Now taxpayers face the cost of the clean-up, which will probably require specialist contractors, as there’s human waste.”
Clr Bolt said, if Kirklees Council took a harder line on travellers, it may deter them from stopping in the borough.
And he said the council needed to make progress with its official travellers’ camp site at Birstall, if there was to be any impact on the amount of unau.“thorised encampments blighting communities across Kirklees.
Kirklees Council was approached for comment.
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