Police will get new powers to evict illegal travellers
MINISTERS will today unveil plans for a new clampdown on illegal traveller sites aimed at tackling the ‘significant distress’ they cause.
The proposals are designed to speed up the eviction of those whose presence can make life a misery for communities.
Police could get new powers to evict travellers, and ministers are considering criminalising unauthorised camps following concern that it is too hard to prosecute people for the existing offence of aggravated trespass.
Housing Minister Dominic Raab said yesterday he was determined to tackle ‘the widespread perception that the rule of law does not apply to those who choose a nomadic lifestyle, and the sense that available enforcement powers do not protect settled communities adequately’.
Mr Raab said illegal sites ‘can cause settled communities significant distress’, adding: ‘The vast majority of the travelling community are decent and lawabiding people. But we are particularly concerned about illegal traveller encampments and some of the anti- social behaviour they can give rise to.’
Sources at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said they were responding to widespread public concern about the impact of illegal sites, including problems with fly-tipping, abusive behaviour, criminal damage, noise and other antisocial behaviour.
There are also concerns that some unauthorised sites interfere with public access to facilities such playgrounds, car parks and playing fields.
Official statistics show the total number of traveller caravans rose by 32 per cent in the decade to January 2017. There are now estimated to be 3,700 caravans on unauthorised sites – about 16 per cent of the total.
The new proposals, contained in a government consultation paper, seek to close a number of loopholes in the existing law.
Ministers are looking at the creation of a new offence that would extend the scope of aggravated trespass. At present, the offence applies only if a traveller camped illegally can be shown to have intimidated or obstructed the landowner.
The consultation asks whether it is time to create a new criminal offence that would allow action against unauthorised camps that ‘substantially damage land or cause serious inconvenience to the landowner or other lawful users of the land’.
The move would significantly lower the legal threshold for criminal action against illegally camped travellers.
Ministers are also considering widening the powers for police to order travellers on unauthorised sites to move on. Those ordered to leave by the police are barred from returning for at least three months, but ministers are now asking whether this period needs to be extended.
Today’s consultation raises the example of the Irish Republic, which criminalised trespass in 2002 in a bid to tackle a major problem with illegal camps.
It also suggests that councils’ powers to shut sites on public land may need to be ‘streamlined’ to speed up evictions.
Mr Raab said the consultation was prompted by public concern about illegal sites. But he said there were also concerns that the problems of illegal sites ‘perpetuate a negative image of the travelling community’.
And he said there was evidence that those living on illegal sites often had limited access to public services, with children in particular suffering ‘detrimental effects’.
‘Sites can cause major distress’