Council wants new power to stop traveller camps
ACOUNCIL has applied for a High Court injunction to stop travellers from setting up illegal camps across the entire borough.
Town hall chiefs in Rochdale say the unusual move is required because their existing powers are ‘being undermined and are ineffective’.
If approved, anyone found breaching the injunction could be locked up, fined or have their assets seized.
Rochdale is the first council in Greater Manchester to attempt to take such action. Over the last three years, 132 unauthorised camps have been set up in the borough.
In its application, which names 89 travellers who have previously been moved on from camps in Rochdale, the council says it has ‘experienced significant and prolonged issues associated with the unauthorised encampments, including fly-tipping, anti-social behaviour and threats of violence to members of the local community’. Local youngsters have been ‘intimidated’ by traveller children and camps are also having a ‘detrimental impact’ on businesses, the application states.
“The council has experienced significant expense in both legal costs and clean-up costs,” it adds.
But Sarah Mann, codirector of Friends, Family and Travellers, a charity which supports and represents the travelling community, described the move as ‘shocking’.
She said: “What if the next town along did something similar, and the next and the next? Where are the travellers supposed to go? In the sea?
“I am not sure they would be treating any other community like this.”
There are two authorised travellers’ camps in Rochdale with a total of 35 spaces. Notices advertising the High Court hearing have gone up at dozens of sites across the borough. A council spokesman said: “We are currently applying for an injunction at the High Court, a hearing is listed to be heard on February 19, when the court will consider whether it is appropriate to make an interim injunction order, pending the final hearing.”