Travellers are taken to task

Evidence - including the failure of police and local authorities to tackle problems when they arise - is being considered by the Government's gypsy task force.

The committee will examine the case of the Smiths, who were handed a landmark anti-social behaviour order banning them from villages near York, and of another group of travellers who left a £20,000 trail of destruction in Pickering.

The Government set up the Task Group on Site Provision and Enforcement in February this year.

Part of its remit is to examine the effectiveness of enforcement powers used by police forces and local authorities, and to advise on new measures to strengthen those powers.

Fred McManus of community safety partnership Safer Ryedale, said: "There was an issue with travellers at the industrial estate in Pickering - and the authorities were not in a position to move fast enough to deal with it.

"At the end of the day all the local authority can do is serve a notice telling them to move, and if they fail to do so, the case goes to the magistrates court.

"But bitter experience has shown that the morning we get to court, the travellers up and off.

"Police do have powers of arrest, but it is not an explicit, statutory power - they have to bear in mind things like danger to the public and damage to property, and it's often difficult to establish that until after the travellers have moved on."

In August, The Press reported the anger of Tony Smithson, MD of Technicare Electronics, after travellers attending a traction engine rally pitched up in Pickering's Thornton Road Industrial Estate.

At the time, Mr Smithson appealed for help from the authorities. He said: "The county council told us it was not their problem, it was a police problem.

"But the police said it was a Ryedale District Council issue. In the meantime, we were at our wits' end - and nobody would lift a finger."

Mr McManus said: "I wrote to the Deputy Prime Minister about this bureaucratic process. Why do we have to go to the magistrates court? Would it not be simpler if the police had a statutory power of arrest?"

The committee - which now falls under the auspices of Ruth Kelly and the Department for Communities and Local Government - wrote back saying the case would be taken into consideration.

Mr McManus added: "It shows we haven't allowed the damage to property to go unnoticed.

"We are hoping to have a more proactive response for next year if these people pitch up at the same site, so we can get them to pack up as soon as practicable."

You are not welcome

"TRAVELLERS wonder why they're not wanted anywhere, but when you see the mess they leave and the wilful destruction they cause, it's no wonder."

These were the words of one parish councillor fed up with travellers who have been pitched on land between Thorpe Willoughby and Hambleton for more than a week.

Mall Doyle, Thorpe Willoughby Parish Council vice-chairman, said the travellers had been camped on highways land just off the roundabout between the two villages.

He said they had been on the North Yorkshire County Council-owned land since last Friday.

Mr Doyle claimed they had broken a fence to gain access to the land, and said they had been fly tipping.

Dennis Healy, chairman of Hambleton Parish Council, said: "It's very difficult for the parish council to do anything other than keep pestering the district and county council.

"This is the third time travellers have come to the village in three years. After the first time they used this land, big concrete blocks were put at the entrance to the site.

"The next time they came back they used a lifting device on the back of a vehicle to move them, and this time they left the blocks and broke down the fence alongside."

He said the parish council had previously forked out more than £300 to clean up the village recreation field after it had been used by travellers.

A Selby District Council spokesman said: "We're aware of the travellers between Thorpe Willoughby and Hambleton.

"This is a county council issue, as the travellers are on highways land.

"We understand they are dealing with it."

Villager Ingrid Millington said: "There's a public footpath and cycle path down there and I imagine people won't want to go down now because they'll be intimidated by the travellers."

She also said her husband had been near the site and had smelt the travellers burning insulation off copper wire.

Christine Shepherd of the York Travellers' Trust said: "There's always negativity towards travellers but in my view there is a need for transient sites where travellers can roll up on a yearly basis travelling from one area to the next."

She said she did not know about the specific group in Hambleton, but said those she knew of tended to clean up after themselves.