Residents urged to work with council

Residents are being urged to work with the council to ensure that travellers sited illegally on land in the borough move as quickly as possible if they are causing a nuisance.

Travellers and gypsies have certain rights and have to be treated fairly. They are classed as an ethnic minority. Because of this, Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council has to carry out checks in order to remove anyone camped illegally:

o Ownership of the land needs to be identified.
o If the land is borough council owned, the council will request a welfare check from Hampshire County Council. This process is to ensure there are no welfare needs prior to the legal process being carried out.
o If there are no welfare needs identified, the council’s legal team will write to the travellers requesting they leave, by a specified date, as they are camped illegally.
o If the travellers do not leave by this date, the council will apply for a Court Order giving the powers to evict.
o Once the land has been vacated, the council will then clean the site as quickly as possible.

Cabinet Member for Community Safety and Development Cllr Clive Sanders said: “While I appreciate that anyone camped illegally has the potential to be disruptive and annoying for residents, it’s important for everyone to understand that travellers have rights which must be respected. We have to follow appropriate measures to move them on.

“Anyone thinking of damaging vehicles belonging to travellers must realise that this is a criminal activity which could be treated as a hate crime and therefore there will have much more serious consequences than just vandalism.

“If residents work together with the council we can ensure that anyone who does choose to camp illegally and causes problems, leaves the site as quickly and peaceably as possible.”