Increasing pressure for travellers' site

The council is now spending far more moving travellers off public land and cleaning up afterwards than the official site would have cost.

In just three months this year, Arun has spent as much '“ just under 20,000 '“ on dealing with travellers, including two illegal encampments at Banjo Road, Littlehampton, as it would have contributed in a whole year towards running the proposed transit facility next to Rustington Golf Centre.

However, plans for that site were abandoned in 2004 due to overwhelming public objection.

Now, two years on, the issue has not gone away and a Arun could be forced to set up a site if a new survey by the county council, on behalf of the Government, proves the need for such a facility. The study is expected to be completed by September.

There are currently no transit sites in West Sussex and Arun district has just one residential travellers' site, at Comet Corner, Middleton.

As well as the illegal traveller encampments in Banjo Road, there have been a further three in the Bognor area.

At a meeting of Arun's cabinet on Monday, during which the council's strategy for dealing with travellers was amended, Paul Unsworth, head of environmental health, spoke of the "increasing pressure to install travellers sites in the district".

He said that although the average cost of dealing with illegal encampments was around 2,500, the overall cost could quadruple if sites were strewn with litter and waste.

The total cost of dealing with a Felpham encampment two weeks ago was around 10-15,000, of which 7,000 went on clearing the mess left behind.

Speaking after the meeting, Mr Unsworth said the Government would cover the #1m cost of setting up a permanent site for transient travellers, with Arun's contribution likely to be around 15-20,000 a year.

He estimated that the council would spend at least twice this amount this year on dealing with illegal encampments.

"We do work with the travellers and try to provide them with bins and toilet facilities," he said. "But sometimes they just deliberately dump their rubbish and waste and the council tax payer is left to pick up the bill.

"The idea now is to wait until the needs assessment is carried out and see what is expected of us. The results will be looked at and we could be told to provide a site for 'X' amount of caravans."

Among the council's amendments to its travellers policy was a move to employ a security company to enforce no parking or clamping, and tow-away controls at key sites such as car parks, and to employ the court bailiff to enforce eviction orders on council land.

The cabinet also agreed to set aside 10,000 from its contingency budget to use on clearing up illegal sites.