Transit site plans still moving forward
Plans to develop a travellers transit site in Walsall are still being looked at despite the latest set of injunctions secured across the borough.
Councillor Ian Shires, who is Walsall Council’s cabinet member for community and leisure, has said that the11 new traveller injunctions brought in this week is welcome news but added more needs to be done to prevent further problems with travellers in the future.
The idea of setting up a transit site was mooted earlier this year and councillor Shires has said that a recent visit to Widnes to see how such a site works proved to him that setting up one in Walsall is ‘the right thing to do’.
Councillor Shires said: "We now have 24 sites protected by injunctions but there is still a way to go.
"We have increased the number of officers in our community protection team and we are actively looking for a plot of land which can be used as a transit site for travellers were they can stay for up to three months for which they would pay rent.
"We recently visited such a site in the North West where travellers can be directed to.
"If they don’t go onto the transit site then the police have the powers to move them on straight away.
"No waiting for court orders, it’s done there and then.
"This way we won't be chasing our tails all the time.
"At present, illegal encampments cost us around £300,000 a year but the cost of running and maintaining a travellers site is around £30,000 a year, so money we save can be put back into frontline services.
"Obviously we have to be sensitive with where we locate the site but it is the right thing to do for the borough."
Sites including beauty spot Barr Beacon, where more than 40 caravans were set up last month, are now covered by a court injunction giving Walsall Council greater powers to remove travellers.
The new injunctions cover Barr Beacon, Aldridge Airport, Walsall Arboretum, King George V Playing Fields in Bloxwich, Pelsall Common, Swannies Field and The Lea, The Croft in Aldridge, Victoria Park in Darlaston, the Wakes Ground car and lorry park in Willenhall, Wolverhampton Street car park and Aldridge Community Centre and adjoining land at Middlemore Lane.
