Three strikes rule: MPs urged to look at asset seizure to combat travellers problem
An MP has called for a 'three strikes rule' allowing police to seize traveller vehicles that persistently break the law.
Wendy Morton urged ministers to explore new legislation giving police powers to impound and sell the assets of travellers who repeatedly set up illegal encampments.
She also launched a scathing attack on Walsall Council for failing to properly secure sites in the borough, enabling travellers to swiftly move from one illegal camp to another.
The Conservative MP for Aldridge-Brownhills opened today's Westminster Hall debate on illegal traveller camps. It comes after ministers announced the launch of a review into the issue earlier this week.
Mrs Morton has backed calls for a change in the law to allow local authorities to direct travellers to legal camps - so called 'transit sites' - in other nearby areas.
She told MPs that illegal camps had been an ongoing issue in Walsall and that the issue had 'come to a head' this year.
Up to September this year there were 68 illegal camps in Walsall, costing the council £200,000 in clean up fees, she said.
Putting forward potential solutions to the issue, Mrs Morton called on ministers to examine the 'Irish Government solution', which has made deliberate acts of trespass a criminal offence.
She also referred to a three strike rule to impound travellers' vehicles, adding: "Surely we should explore this?"
"The state that some of the sites are left in after travellers have been evicted are simply a disgrace," she said.
"There is often masses and masses of litter and household waste." Mrs Morton said that at one site in her constituency she encountered so much human excrement that she required a pair of wellies to march through it.
"Members of the Councils Clean and Green team should not be expected to clean up human excrement, and this is not what residents of Walsall Borough pay their council tax for.
"Industrial Waste is also commonplace, be this bricks and leftovers from building sites or garden waste from 'off the book work' members of the encampment have been carrying out."
Mrs Morton said that lax security at some sites in her constituency had enabled newly evicted travellers to 'set up shop five minutes down the road'.
"How can this be?" she added.
"It sometimes goes further than this – a High restriction barrier was on one occasion locked open, allowing the travellers to simply drive onto the site and set up camp.
"I have raised this issue with Walsall Council, securing other sites in the borough should surely be a priority on days when evictions are taking place?
"It does beg the question, does the council’s left hand know what its right hand is doing? What is exactly going on at Walsall Council?"
Concluding her speech, Mrs Morton said: "It’s time for the police and council to work closely together, using the powers already available to them, to help stop these encampments appearing in the first place and speed up the eviction process.
"It’s for the Government to look, through the consultation, at the effectiveness or otherwise of the existing laws.
"How the law could be strengthened to best help the police and Local Authorities deal with this issue. And secondly, stop the need for travellers to camp illegally on council or private land.
"Finally, it is time for the travelling community to realise that the right to lead a travelling lifestyle does not equal a right to break the law.
"With rights, must surely come responsibilities. And with responsibilities will come respect."
