Pickles publishes guide to stop travellers 'trashing the green belt'

[Paul Mobbs]

The silly season continues...

With publicly funded advertising lorries against immigrants, and now
campaigns against people living in caravans, what I'd really like to
know is when they plan to start setting up "the camps"... after all,
think of the boost to the construction and hospitality industries that
it would create.

Seriously, I think that Scotland better hurry up and gain independence
soon. The way things are going a lot of people on these lists might have
to ask them for political asylum ;-)

That's the great thing about email lists; the Government doesn't have to
put you on a list, you nominate yourself -- and then they just go around
an mop up the data from the list service providers!

P.


http://www.planningresource.co.uk/news/1194562/pickles-publishes-guide-stop-travellers-trashing-green-belt/

Pickles publishes guide to stop travellers 'trashing the green belt'

Richard Rhydderch, Friday, 9th August 2013


Illegal traveller camps should be shut down more quickly or tackled
pre-emptively to avoid travellers 'trashing the green belt', communities
secretary Eric Pickles has said as he publishes a new guidance for
councils outlining powers to deal with unauthorised encampments.

Speaking this morning on ITV’s Daybreak, Pickles said: "We inherited a
situation where the number of illegal sites had gone up fourfold, and
what we expect [travellers] to do is to obey the law like you and I do.

Responding to a questions on what the government had done to ensure
adequate provision of legal sites for travellers, Pickles said: "We’ve
made £60m available for new sites". But he said a shortage of legal
sites did not give people "the right to come onto the green belt or to
come onto a village green like this and to trash it".

The guide, launched by the Department of Local Government and
Communities (DCLG), collates existing legal remedies for local
authorities and the police along with clean-up powers, and stresses the
need for a coordinated approach between agencies and individuals.

The summary also stresses the importance of pre-emptive injunctions to
protect land in advance from unauthorized encampments. It suggests that
local authorities could consider applying to the courts for an
injunction to prevent encampments in a defined geographical area.

In a statement, Pickles said: "I want all councils to be ready to take
action straightaway to stop illegal camps and unauthorized sites
starting in the first place. Decisive action early on saves money and
unnecessary upset".

The guide come after Pickles announced in July that he is to personally
decide more planning appeals involving traveller sites and the green
belt and revoked a planning guidance document on diversity and equality
in planning.

Dealing with illegal and unauthorised encampments: a summary of
available powers can be at --
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dealing-with-illegal-and-unauthorised-encampments-a-summary-of-available-powers
 


-- 

"We are not for names, nor men, nor titles of Government,
nor are we for this party nor against the other but we are
for justice and mercy and truth and peace and true freedom,
that these may be exalted in our nation, and that goodness,
righteousness, meekness, temperance, peace and unity with
God, and with one another, that these things may abound."
(Edward Burrough, 1659 - from 'Quaker Faith and Practice')

Paul Mobbs, Mobbs' Environmental Investigations
3 Grosvenor Road, Banbury OX16 5HN, England
tel./fax (+44/0)1295 261864
email - mobbsey at gn.apc.org
website - http://www.fraw.org.uk/mei/index.shtml
public key - http://www.fraw.org.uk/mei/mobbsey_public_key-2013.asc

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