Last year (August 2016) travellers moved in a field alongside Ridgeway in front of Bradwell Drive, and when evicted moved to the public park between Beckhampton Road, Bala Drive and Eastglade Road. The Council put in some temporary barriers made of tree trunks to prevent access to the sites, but this year (June 2017) the travellers repeated the unauthorized access to both sites. The makeshift barriers have proved inadequate to keep the travellers out as they have gaps and are easily moved without damaging them.
Started by: Francesco Lari
On reaching 1 signatures the head of the relevant department will be made aware of the matter.
This Paper petition was received on 09/08/2017.
173 people signed this Paper petition.
SUBMISSION OF A PETITION – PERMANENT VEHICLE BARRIER
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Your petition has been forwarded to the Corporate Director of
Development and Growth and the Corporate Director for Commercial
and Operations and will now be investigated. You should receive a
response within 12 working days.
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Dear Resident,
We have received the petition you signed calling for permanent vehicle barriers on fields and parks in Bestwood ward and I am writing to you to let you know what the Council is doing to prevent travellers accessing these areas in the future.
The City Council shares your concerns about travellers accessing Council property and continues to work to prevent this, as well as moving people on when they do access land as quickly as possible.
Following travellers arriving on both Ridgeway and Beckhampton Road fields in August last year, we looked at options for preventing vehicle access to these sites. The cost of installing permanent barriers on these fields would be £50,000. However, as you may be aware, Ridgeway Field is due to be developed for council housing next spring and Beckhampton Field has been earmarked for development as a sports hub. Spending £50,000 installing permanent barriers that will be taken down shortly doesn’t seem to be a good use of council tax payer’s money. That’s why we looked for a more cost effective alternative, which involved using the trunks of trees that had been felled elsewhere in the city. This way, we could save local people’s money and secure the site.
Unfortunately, back in June, travellers returned to Ridgeway Park, using lifting equipment to remove a tree stump and access the site. Our Community Protection Officers immediately served them with notice to vacate the site on the same day, 20th June. The group failed to comply with this notice so the City Council began legal proceedings for possession of the land. On hearing this news, the travellers moved on the 23rd June, lifting another tree trunk to access the fields on Beckhampton Road. Community Protection Officers were on site within an hour to issue the travellers with notice to vacate and the travellers were evicted on the 31st June. Whilst the travellers were present, local ward councillors worked closely with Community Protection Officers who regularly engaged with the local community as well as those on the encampment to provide reassurance and local councillors
We have since installed further tree trunks which should make it very difficult to access the site, and have retained the Court Orders which will allow us to immediately evict travellers should the same vehicles return.
I hope you are reassured that we are taking this issue
seriously, and like you we do not wish to see caravans on these
public open spaces. I would be interested to hear your views on
this issue; please let me know if you still feel permanent barriers
would be a good use of money, even though these would have to be
removed next year.
Yours sincerely,
Jon Collins
Leader of the Council