Traveller caravans increase by a quarter in Black Country and Staffordshire

Government statistics showed that in January 2016 the number of caravans being lived in across the region had jumped to 540, up from 431 in January 2014 – a rise of 25.2 per cent.

Fifty one of the 540 caravans were found to be illegally placed – 35 in Sandwell and 16 in South Staffordshire.

Walsall saw the largest increase from January 2014 to January 2016 – the number of caravans there increasing by 56 per cent in that time. That was followed by Sandwell, which increased by 46.1 per cent, and Lichfield, which saw the number of caravans increase there by a third. Wolverhampton saw a 23 per cent rise.

South Staffordshire and Stafford saw increases of 8.5 per cent and 3.7 per cent respectively. Just two councils – Cannock Chase and Dudley – saw their counts fall.

Walsall Council officers counted 116 caravans in January 2016 but just 51 in January 2014.

The data is provided in local authorities' traveller caravan counts, which must be undertaken twice a year – once in January and again in July. The biggest number of caravans in one district – 128 – was recorded in South Staffordshire in January 2016.

Sandwell Council saw its total increase from 35 to 65 in January 2016 – but that increase was down to the 35 illegally parked there. Wolverhampton City Council had 40 plots – which were all occupied throughout the two years until January 2016 – at its Showell Road site. It also saw an increase from zero to 12 caravans on a designated site between 2014 to 2016. Caravans at Stafford's Glover Street Itinerant Site dropped from 11 to six to 2016 but another eight moved there in the two years before.

Cannock Chase saw the number of caravans there fall from 42 to 37 in January 2016. Dudley's number declined from 66 to 57 in the two years from January 2014. While Lichfield's total rose from four to six.