Travellers (Unauthorised Encampments)

Simon Kirby Excerpts

Wednesday 9th November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Simon Kirby (Brighton, Kemptown) (Con)]

I beg to move,

That leave be given to bring in a Bill to enable police forces and local authorities in England and Wales to disperse unauthorised traveller encampments with the minimum of delay; and for connected purposes.

I am delighted to have the opportunity to present this Bill to the House. I hope that it will address the concerns of my constituents in Brighton, Kemptown, the constituents of my neighbour, my hon. Friend the Member for Hove (Mike Weatherley), and the constituents of right hon. and hon. Members up and down the country regarding unauthorised Traveller encampments.

We all recall the scenes at Dale Farm in Essex a few weeks ago. I am aware of the strength of feeling about unauthorised Traveller encampments in Brighton and Hove. I recently held a public meeting in Woodingdean in my constituency that was attended by more than 1,000 people. I have also taken part in a peaceful demonstration organised by local residents, which was attended by a similar number of people, near a site that has not been ruled out as a possible Traveller site by the Green-run Brighton and Hove city council. The refuse, damage and inconvenience that, whether we like it or not, often accompany unauthorised sites are more than some communities want to bear. There have been numerous incursions this year in Brighton, which have only aggravated the problems and heightened feelings on this matter.

I am grateful to the Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, my hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Robert Neill), for his help in addressing some of these issues in the Westminster Hall debate that I secured early this year. However, it was clear from that debate that many hon. Members, with seats across the country, have their constituencies affected by this issue and that more therefore needs to be done. This is about protecting local green spaces and sports facilities. In my constituency, there have been unauthorised encampments at Happy Valley, Sheepcote Valley, Wild park and on the Black Rock site. Furthermore, Travellers riding motorbikes across football pitches while children are attempting to play football in front of their mums and dads is simply unacceptable.

We need clarity and a strengthening of the law. My Bill seeks to achieve these two distinct aims, and has two objectives: the first is to give local authorities and the police additional powers and responsibilities to help to move unauthorised Traveller encampments on more quickly. Nothing irritates my constituents more than to see an illegal encampment on their doorsteps for weeks on end. They do not understand why the public authorities often seem powerless or unwilling to move on the vans, cars and other vehicles that so often accompany these events.

The second objective is to clarify the law as it affects the police and local councils. Hon Members will be aware that the key Act regulating the relationship between the police and local authorities is the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. As I understand it, there was a clear intention in that Act to enable unauthorised Traveller encampments to be moved on promptly, but over the years, because of case law and interpretation, it seems as though the Act is being implemented more liberally than the then Government had intended. Given what we have seen this year, it is time to restore the original intentions of the Act, and my Bill will do just that. It contains four provisions. First, it will clarify the Act so that the police have to take action when an unauthorised encampment appears. We know that the police are not obliged to move Travellers on, and this is a matter of real contention, especially in Brighton and Hove. It cannot be right that if a local authority or local landowner does not move quickly, neighbours of the site have to deal with the matter as best they can. The police should be obliged to move an unauthorised Traveller encampment whenever one occurs.

Secondly, we need to review the welfare check process to ensure that when Travellers move within a local authority area, the authorities do not have to undertake the same checks on the same people again and again, so delaying the possibility of moving the Travellers on. It is nonsense to review the health and welfare of people checked only the week before, because it delays moving the Travellers on and causes frustration and concern for local residents. Clearly, where there are health and welfare matters to manage that affect an individual and their family, these should not be used as an excuse for delaying action against the whole Traveller group.

Next, I believe that the authorities should have increased powers to impound Travellers’ caravans and associated vehicles, if the owners do not move on as directed. The existing powers in section 62C of the 1994 Act need strengthening. We need to end, once and for all, the cat-and-mouse issues that arise as Travellers move from one site to another one nearby. Often these moves are a matter of only 100 yards or so, and as local taxpayers are paying to clear up the mess on one site, often the offenders have reappeared down the road, which puts the legal process back to square one. This cannot be right. The threat of impounding vehicles, if Travellers do not move on right away or if they do not comply with instructions issued to them, should be a serious deterrent to non-compliance

Finally, there needs to be a requirement for local authorities to maintain an out-of-hours service so that the issue of unauthorised encampments can be addressed at weekends, in the evenings and on bank holidays. Any hon. Member who has had experience of Travellers in their constituency will know that they frequently arrive on a Friday evening and move on just before a court order is enforced. It seems to me that an out-of-hours service would not only enable work on the moving on of unauthorised encampments to begin immediately, but mean that welfare checks could be carried out more promptly.

Much has been said about how seeking to move unauthorised Traveller encampments on more quickly is racist or discriminatory. Nothing could be further from the truth. Both the Travelling and settled communities need clarity, which I hope that my Bill will increase. Hard experience has shown that after 17 years, the 1994 Act is not having the effect originally intended by Parliament and does not enable the police and local authorities to move Traveller encampments on quickly enough. When we witness these scenes, we cannot, as hon. Members, stand by and do nothing.

Historically, the role of the House has been to strike a fair and appropriate balance between the roles and responsibilities of different groups of people in this country and to rectify that balance when necessary. The costs, the inconvenience and the sheer frustration of the settled community need to be addressed, which is what my Bill seeks to do with sensible step-by-step changes to existing laws, while acknowledging how the relationship between Travellers and the settled community has changed over recent years. The people of Brighton, Kemptown desperately want change and desperately need clarity, and people up and down the country want those two things as well. I believe that now is the time for both the change and the clarity. My Bill will help to bring about both.

Question put and agreed to

Ordered,

That Simon Kirby, Mike Weatherley, Heather Wheeler, Nicholas Soames, Mark Garnier, Priti Patel, Jack Lopresti, Nigel Adams, Caroline Nokes, Karen Bradley, Robert Halfon and Paul Maynard present the Bill.

Simon Kirby accordingly presented the Bill.

Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 20 January 2012, and to be printed (Bill 247).