Council locked park gates to keep out travellers . . . then let them in anyway because of elf ’n’ safety
AFTeR problems with travellers trying to set themselves up in a public park over the summer, a council took the step of locking the main gates to keep them out.
But, as a fresh convoy of 30 caravans arrived, such common sense was clearly no match for the warped logic of health and safety.
Astonishingly, officials decided to unlock the vehicle access gate – because they were worried the intruders might hurt themselves during their efforts to get in.
The travellers duly made themselves at home – and because the council voluntarily let them in, police have lost all powers to evict them.
Taxpayers will instead now have to fund a lengthy civil court battle to throw out the intruders from Wild Park, on the outskirts of Brighton.
The farce emerged in a leaked confidential email by Brighton and hove Council to councillors. It said: ‘After the initial trespass was reported, Sussex Police highlighted the dangerous nature with which the group were accessing the field.
‘As such a decision was taken to open the access gate to reduce the risk to road users and to stop the occupants from crossing the pavement to access the road.’
Local residents say they are now unable to use the park, Brighton and hove’s largest local nature reserve, and fear it could become ‘a new Dale Farm’, the illegal essex camp of 1,000 travellers which cost millions of pounds to break up.
At the start of the summer, the council padlocked the gates to Wild Park after itinerants had to be removed. About 30 caravans arrived and the travellers, determined to gain access, repeatedly drove over pavements and mounds designed as obstructions. It was then, last week, that the Green Party-led council decided to open the gates to reduce risk to the public and the travellers themselves. More than 30 caravans are now camped on the land, with more feared over the weekend.
Inspector Bill Whitehead of Sussex Police said 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. But because the council had let them in, the section no longer applies.
Tory councillor Dawn Barnett said last night: ‘The council is mad. They have opened the flood gates. The kids who live nearby can’t play in the park any more because it’s not safe. I am terrified it may turn into another Dale Farm.’
One traveller, 60-year- old Mary Long, said: ‘ We have been to this site before. They haven’t opened the gate for us before but they did on Tuesday. The council here are helpful.’
A council spokesman said: ‘ The council has initiated legal proceedings to evict the travellers.’