Landowner gives travellers £5k to move (and faces £20k clean-up) as police do nothing
A BUSINESSMAN was forced to pay travellers £5,000 to leave his land – after police told him that they were powerless to remove the group.
The travellers broke into Syed Hussain’s property – cutting through a chained gate – and set up camp, refusing to leave without being paid.
Now, after handing over the ‘ransom’, Mr Hussain and business partner Devinder Singh have been left with a clean-up bill of £20,000.
Their industrial site in Langley, near Slough in Berkshire, was left covered in huge piles of rubbish and debris.
Mr Hussain, 56, said he called police after the travellers arrived with two caravans on August 31.
He said: ‘ When the police came, the officer tried to enter the site and the travellers started filming him and said, “Don’t come in, you’re trespassing.”’
‘We then went to the magistrates court to get them removed but were told it could take months so in the end we paid them £5,000 to leave the site.
‘Now we face a £20,000 bill to remove the rubbish.
‘I feel totally let down by the system. These travellers are free to do what they want but for people like us who pay our taxes, we don’t have any power. The travellers have far more power than us. They broke our chain and just said, “This is our land.”’
The group left after almost a week, once their demands for money had been met.
According to Mr Singh, 32, the travellers who settled on the land have homes in nearby West Drayton, West London, and moved on to the industrial site to dump building and household rubbish before finally leaving on Tuesday evening.
He said that, after arriving with two caravans on August 31, the group steadily increased the number of caravans on the site to eight, with 25 people living on the one- acre site at one point. ‘ I couldn’t sleep when they were there,’ Mr Singh said. ‘ I’m gutted because they have cost me so much money.
‘Until we move the rubbish, we can’t start work.
‘They were coming in and out with trucks full of rubbish. There’s wood, plants, bathtubs, bricks, gas and cylinders.
‘All of these travellers live in houses in West Drayton. They used our site to fly-tip all their rubbish.’ A Thames Valley Police spokesman confirmed that an officer had been called to an ‘unauthorised encampment’ and spoken to the landowner.
The Environment Agency said: ‘We are aware of the issue and this is currently under investigation by our local officers.
‘We cannot say much more until our work has concluded.’
‘They have cost me so much money’