Travellers have once again set up camp on council owned land in Handforth. They arrived at Earl Road, adjacent to the Handforth Dean retail park, on Wednesday, 9th July.
A spokesperson for Cheshire East Council said: "A group of Travellers, consisting of 15 caravans and assorted vehicles are currently based on Earl Road, Handforth. They arrived yesterday.
"Council officers have visited the location and we are now moving forward with the legal process to secure possession of the site."
Councillor Michael Jones, Leader of Cheshire East Council said: "This is an ongoing difficulty that the Council is determined to deal with.
"We have to find a suitable transit site for Gypsies and Travellers. We have been talking to everybody and I am pleased to say that we are working on identifying a suitable site, which hopefully will come to planning committee within the next few months.
"Once we have set this in place, arrivals such as this one on Earl Road will be illegal encampments and the police will be able to move them on immediately.
"At the moment, without a transit site, we have to go through the process of obtaining a court order, which takes time and money."
Comments
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"... We have been talking to everybody and I am pleased to say that we are working on identifying a suitable site, which hopefully will come to planning committee within the next few months.
Who is "everybody" referred to above? Anyone reading this been asked their opinion?
It has been suggested before, and continually ignored , not unlike like most of the other sensible suggestions to deal with this recurring problem,,,
Councillor MJones has more front than the town hall here suggesting it is " an ongoing difficulty that the Council is determined to deal with ",,,Actions speak louder than words, !!
MJ and his cronies are more eager to collect column inches than deal with this . And do they really think ONE SITE will address this issue ??,,, Ridiculous,, However the Malpas option sounds appropriate, for MJ to deal with directly,,, keep an eye on his travelling supporters no doubt, The personal touch Michael !!
This really is a tedious boring recurrence, demonstrating inactivity and inefficiency by local authority / Law enforcement, ,,,Dont therefore MJ ,, treat travellers differently to any other RoW, who may wish to park their own vehicle and caravan on Earl Road for the summer holiday !
Chris wouldn't it be even stranger............ if a poor traveller hit the unlit, unmarked,hazardous tree trunks ( obstruction ) pulled across the road,by the Council... and then got the long arm of the law... from the 200 officers and 100 vehicle available... to prosecute CEC on their behalf... followed by a a similar civil suite for injury / damage.........
I'm sure CEC have risk assessed all this in their management plan, ?? !!! ( Not Really !)...
And similarly perhaps if RoW have problems with parked vehicles in their area ...CEC could abandon further tree trunks on similar random basis...
Just a great demonstration of CEC, enforcement and Legal dept .. working together to the benefit of the rate paying RoW voters......When is that election ??
Whereas far more suitable sites can be found in the Malpas area, I am sure that Mr Jones could not object to such a proposal.
Here we go again.........