East Lancashire councils spend £40k cleaning up travellers sites (From Lancashire Telegraph)

East Lancashire councils spend £40k cleaning up travellers sites

10:11am Tuesday 10th January 2012 in Nelson By Jon Livesey, Reporter

COUNCILS have spent almost £40,000 removing and cleaning up after travellers in the past four years.

The money includes that spent on legal fees to remove travellers from illegal encampments, as well as the cost of clearing, and safeguarding, sites after their departure.

Last year saw a number of incidents where police and councils had to work together to move travellers off different East Lancashire sites.

In summer, travellers were forced to move after setting up home in Burnley, at the Prairie playing fields; a car park near Queen Victoria Park; the former Towneley all-weather pitch; Hargher Clough Recreation Ground; Caledonia Mill car park; and Stoneyholme Recreation Ground.

Charlie Briggs, leader of Burnley Council, said: “We can’t plan in advance because we don’t know when they are going to come back.

"We have a reasonable idea that when the fair is on at Appleby we may have a few come into town, and we just have to deal with them as they arrive.

“The residents of Burnley don’t want them here, so we deal with them as is necessary.”

The figures, released to the Lancashire Telegraph following a Freedom of Information Act request, show Burnley Council’s costs related to removal of travellers from local authority land stood at £7,433.47 in 2008, £9,877.43 in 2009, £10,109.96 in 2010, and £3,539.90 last year.

Rossendale Council spent £3,500 in 2010/11, and £1,500 between April last year and January, but nothing in the two previous years. Travellers left fly-tipped rubbish and human faeces at sites including Futures Park, Bacup, and Edenfield Recreation Ground.

Blackburn with Darwen Council had to fork out £2,584 in relation to one incident in Cherry Tree Lane in 2009, two in Belthorn Road, and one in Old Bank Lane, in 2010.

In Pendle, travellers were removed from sites in 2009, but not at any cost to the council.

The local authority spent £1,375.46 in relation to incidents on land next to Victoria Park, Lomeshaye Industrial Estate, and Hodge House playing fields, Nelson, last year.

Ribble Valley Council had to spend just £370 on two incidents in 2008, but that amount was recharged to the landowner.