Barrier plan to halt travellers
Reporter: KAREN DOHERTY
Date published: 15 April 2009
Gipsies return two weeks after bill was paid for the last clean up...
BARRIERS could be erected after Gipsies returned to a town centre site only a fortnight after they forced the owners to foot an expensive clean-up bill.
Swarms of travellers left tonnes of rubbish — including huge slabs of Tarmac, concrete, soil and shrubs — on the former B&Q car park in Mumps in January.
The DIY chain would not confirm how much the resulting clean-up operation cost. But it is now working with police and Oldham Council chiefs to keep travellers off its land after caravans rolled up again on Saturday.
Councillor Mark Alcock, Cabinet member for infrastructure and the environment, said: “If you can stop caravans going on, you will stop the travellers.
“We have done that at a number of places across the borough. We also put other immovable obstacles such a rocks in the way.
“I’m glad B&Q is going to do something because travellers make a mess every time they come.”
Around a dozen caravans set up camp over Easter, along with several trucks and vans — clearly used for gardening or building work.
B&Q is responsible for bailiff costs to remove travellers from the private land, now used as a car park, as well as any resulting clean-up operation.
However, nothing appeared to have been left after the travellers hit the road again last night.
Oldham taxpayers pay thousands of pounds every year to clear up after travellers who leave a mess on public land.
Councillor Alcock added: “What the travellers are doing is fly-tipping. They do work for someone and then dump the rubbish.
“The council spends more than £1 million each year cleaning up fly-tipping across the borough, not only at travellers’ sites. We would rather spend that on play areas and things people want rather than clearing up after these people.”
He said travellers had to be caught in the act to secure a conviction for flytipping and called for national legislation to tackle the problem.
“What we would rather happen is they do not make the mess in the first place.
“But we have got to do something to address the situation because it is not right that the people of this borough and other boroughs pick up the bill.”
A spokesman for B&Q said: “We will work with the council and police to stop travellers from being able to settle on the site again.”
