Travellers at Bay
HUGH SULLIVAN
Between 27 June and 10 July a group of Travellers camped for nearly two weeks at the Old Bathing Pool site in West St Leonards in 12 or 13 caravans. Their behaviour has upset local residents, who have called into question the responses of police and council authorities.
Old bathing pool
Bryan Fisher of West St Leonards Neighbourhood Forum says that a number of criminal and anti-social activities were reported to Sussex Police during the fortnight of the encampment. These included multiple incidents of shoplifting from the local supermarket, Premier Stores in Bexhill Road, indiscriminate driving of cars and racing of a trail bike on the promenade and path by the beach huts, as well as dumping used gas canisters and accumulating other rubbish.
‘Vel’ Gnanadivel, owner of Premier Stores, confirmed that groups of children were stealing from the shop quite openly. He says he reported several incidents to the police, having CCTV footage from which the identity of the offenders could be checked quite readily. “They didn’t take any interest,” he said.
“ALL VISITORS WELCOME”
The freehold of the Old Bathing Pool site is owned by Hastings Borough Council (HBC) but leased to prospective developers County Gate. It is not clear whose legal responsibility it is currently to maintain or secure it. However, a spokesperson for the council said: “As a town, Hastings prides itself on welcoming all visitors. A substantial part of our income relies on visitors coming to our town. We treat Travellers in the same way we treat all our visitors.”
Although no permission, either formal or informal, was given to the Travellers to set up camp on the site, according to the spokesperson, the site “was reviewed and checked daily”. There were also “welfare checks” carried out by officers of East Sussex County Council (ESCC) which were shared with HBC.
“Travelling communities have protected rights as a minority group under the Equality Act and Human Rights Act,” the HBC spokesperson added. “When considering enforcement action there needs to be significant damage, disruption or distress to the local area before the police can serve a section 61 notice.”
LACK OF ALTERNATIVE SITES
A spokesperson for ESCC commented that the decision whether police powers are used to redirect or instruct Travellers to leave an unauthorised encampment “rests with the police”. But a redirection could only have been to the council’s transit site at Bridies Tan in Lewes, which it maintains “for temporary stopping”. Only 7-8 spaces were available for caravans there at the time. The council has four permanent residential sites, but the spokesperson admitted that they “do not come available very often. The last one to become available was in May this year and has now been allocated.”
The police were no doubt aware of the lack of alternative provision in taking no enforcement action.
When the Travellers left on 10 July, moving on to another unauthorised site on the lower tier at Bulverhythe Recreation Ground, a five-person crew of HBC’s street cleaners took several hours to clear the site. Asked what the cost of this was, the spokesperson said: “In the same way there is no mechanism for recovering costs incurred by visitors who leave rubbish on the beach, there is no mechanism in place for recovering the cost involved with clearing the rubbish left behind on the Old Bathing Pool. We are currently working on improving rubbish bin provision.”
NATIONAL ISSUE
Bryan Fisher accepts that the problem is countrywide. “I believe a discussion is required at national level to prevent illegal encampments where a travellers camp exists within a local authority. It should not allow ‘days of grace’ but rather a quick-action eviction to deter the travellers from these illegal and unsocial occupations. I also feel, somehow, the Traveller community needs to realise their collective behaviour is to a large degree behind their dislike. If they co-existed better with others, and perhaps were even more aligned to sustainability and the environment, I am sure there would be less opposition to them.”
As to the local issue, he has written to HBC leader Paul Barnett asking for an urgent meeting “to try and establish ways to protect the [Old Bathing Pool] site better…It is really sad that communities need to prepare as if for a siege to protect their assets from abuse, and equally sad that Travellers make no attempt to co-exist with locals/visitors but rather intimidate them with their vehicles as they pass by. If the Travellers kept their site tidy, were quiet and well-behaved, I think local communities would be far more tolerant. As it is, they see a section of society using claims of being an oppressed minority to indulge in criminal and anti-social behaviour with impunity.”
Coincidentally, the Police and Crime Commissioner for Sussex, Katy Bourne, issued a press release on 7 July promoting “ASB Awareness Week”. The stated theme, Know your Rights is “about informing people of the help that is available from police and local authorities and to encourage victims of anti-social behaviour to report incidents…Sussex has been chosen as one of ten trailblazer sites for Immediate Justice which will see perpetrators swiftly repairing the damage and harm they have caused.”
HIP talked to a spokesperson from the Traveller movement at travellermovement.org.uk who responded to the complaints from local residents by emphasising that while troublemakers exist in any group, they should not be seen as representative of the whole community. “It’s important not to make sweeping generalisations and to look at incidents on an individual basis.”
The Government’s Planning Policy for Traveller Sites, issued in 2015, defines Travellers as: “Persons of nomadic habit of life whatever their race or origin, including such persons who on grounds only of their own or their family’s or dependants’ educational or health needs or old age have ceased to travel temporarily, but excluding members of an organised group of travelling showpeople or circus people travelling together as such.”
Sections 61 and 62 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 empower the police to remove trespassers and their vehicles from any land without a court order. Return to the particular location within three months carries criminal sanctions.
Sections 77 and 78 of the same Act empower a local council to direct trespassers to leave land they are encamped upon, irrespective of ownership. However, the council needs to obtain a court order to enforce the direction if the trespassers don’t leave voluntarily.
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Last month a group of travellers were moved on after they moved in to the local recreation ground in Little Common. My understanding is that there is a lack of permanent sites and that whilst there is a suitable site here in Bexhill the local District Council (Rother) have failed to make provisions or develop/allocate the site for use by the travelling community…so they have to keep being moved on.