From Mr. David Hennigan, Sutton in Ashfield:
To Councillor Helen-Ann Smith as the Portfolio Holder responsible for Parks and Open Spaces:
“Can the Council please outline the work it has done to secure our parks, recreation grounds and open spaces it is responsible for in the light of the continuing encampment of travellers across our District? Can the Council please tell me the specific actions they have taken since May to ensure our parks are free for all to use?”
From Mr. Linford Gibbons, Kirkby in Ashfield:
To Councillor Jason Zadrozny as Leader of the Council:
“Following the decision by Nottinghamshire County Council to build a business case to create a single authority in Nottinghamshire abolishing District and Borough Authorities, when will the people of Ashfield be consulted for their opinions and what is the position of ADC regarding this matter?”
Minutes:
In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 11, the following questions had been submitted:-
Question 1
From Mr. David Hennigan:
To Councillor Helen-Ann Smith as the Portfolio Holder responsible for Parks and Open Spaces:
“Can the Council please outline the work it has done to secure our parks, recreation grounds and open spaces it is responsible for in the light of the continuing encampment of travellers across our District? Can the Council please tell me the specific actions they have taken since May to ensure our parks are free for all to use?”
The Deputy Leader of the Council (Outward Focus) responded to the question as follows:-
“Thank you Mr. Hennigan for your question. As everyone in this room is aware illegal travel encampments have been a major issue across the District this summer. We have been working tirelessly on this issue and I would firstly like to thank all the officers and my colleagues that were involved in the clean up afterwards and the continuous clean up whilst the travellers have been on site. So I’d like to make that point to all the Council staff please Mr. Mitchell.
Due to this significant problem that we’ve had with illegal encampments this summer, we have completely revamped our illegal encampment protocol and the way the Council deals with these. We have been conducting regular checks on all our parks and open spaces across the District to ensure that they are as secure as they could possibly be. We’ve had locks changed, we’ve put extra locks on in certain areas; we’ve also been working jointly with the County Council with an issue on Strawberry Bank, which is County Council land. We went up and worked with the County Council to make sure that that site was also secure.
We’ve also been doing a lot of work with neighbouring authorities across the region to try and find the best way of dealing with this issue and we’re looking at a couple of different options at the moment. The first one that we’re looking at is….this is the legal part that I’ve got to say like this but then I’ll explain it afterwards.
We are looking at an injunction which can be applied for under Section 222 of the Local Government Act 1972, which gives the Council the general power to prosecute or defend or appear in any legal proceedings in their own name where it is considered expedient for the promotion or protection of the interests of the inhabitants of their area.
An injunction can be sought for an individual site or district wide. It can also be against named individuals if details are known. We would need sufficient evidence to prove to the Court that the injunction is required to protect the interests of inhabitants.
Basically what that means is there is an injunction that we can get but it needs to be site specific. I’ve been advised that we wouldn’t get it through the court on a District wide basis because we’ve had no incidents of illegal encampments in large proportions of the District.
It seems very confined to certain areas but on those areas where we have had them we can get an injunction, which is something that we’re looking at doing. This basically means that if they come back on to that site that they’ve been on previously we can send the bailiffs to kick them off within five minutes of them being there rather than having to go through the full process. Now that is one of the options that we are looking at.
Another one, I’ve been doing a lot of work with some of my colleagues on Derby City Council and they’ve come up with quite an innovative way of dealing with the problem with illegal encampments on one of their parks, on Markeaton Park in Derby City. What they’ve done is basically, they’ve dug a moat round the edge of the park about two foot wide, so that they can still get their lawnmowers on because they can fit through pedestrian area but you can’t get caravans, or trailers, or anything like that on to the park. So that is another option that we are looking at for our play parks and open spaces. Thank you.”
The Chairman then gave Mr. Hennigan the opportunity to ask a supplementary question and he responded as follows:-
“Do you consider the hard line taken against travellers from the Administration that run this Council, all Council officers to be racist?”
The Deputy Leader of the Council (Outward Focus) again responded to the
supplementary question as follows:-
“Yes, thank you Madam Chairman. No, I don’t consider it to be a racist approach to dealing with the issue. I think it was a justified response. They illegally broke on to our parks, they damaged locks, they pulled out bollards that were in the way to prevent vehicles from accessing it.
We do a lot of work with a lot of other travelling communties. We have a lot of very good relationships with the Showman’s community. Myself and the Leader have actually been invited to the Showman’s Guild next year, their annual dinner, so it’s not a racist approach. We did what we did to protect the residents and to make it so that children could actually use the play provisions that we have within the District.
While the illegal travellers were on the Twitchell Park on Cowpasture Lane, it meant that on Sunday we have a considerable number of groups of young lad’s football teams playing on there which meant they couldn’t play football that week. That is the sort of thing that I don’t condone and I will always work to put the best interests of the residents of Ashfield at heart.”
Question 2
Council were advised that the question, as submitted by Mr. Linford Gibbons from Kirkby in Ashfield, had been withdrawn prior to the meeting.