As reported yesterday, Cheshire East Council were given a repossession order at Macclesfield Court on Thursday morning by District Judge Wallace, to enable them to take back possession of Carnival Field.
The Council then gave notice to the travellers, who have been camped on Carnival Field for the past ten days, to leave by 5pm otherwise officers would turn up with the bailiffs to enforce the order.
However, they refused to leave and yesterday evening 24 caravans remained on the site.
A spokesperson for Cheshire East Council said: "The Council served a repossession order on the Gypsies/Travellers that are on Carnival Fields, off Altrincham Road, Wilmslow yesterday (Thursday). They were required to leave by 5pm that day or face enforcement by bailiffs to clear the site.
"However, the Travellers refused to leave. We are now going back to court to apply for court bailiffs to attend and help Council staff remove them as soon as possible.
"Our streetscape officers have also been out and replaced locks and further secured Council sites where we can in the area. We are also looking at other actions to help secure our sites from unlawful encampments in the future."
Prior to being camped off Altrincham Road this group of travellers spent two weeks on fields adjacent to the A34 bypass where they left mounds of rubble and rubbish - and the High School facing a £10,000 bill to clean up after them.
Photos: The above photos of Carnival Field have been taken in the past couple of days.
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
Or are they all too busy filling in forms to actually do their job?
Perhaps we all need to call ourselves travellers, stop paying council tax and dump our rubbish in Cheshire Constabulary's car park to get some action.
http://bit.ly/14NTnmz
Let's put some pressure on East Cheshire to put in place the same sort of injunctions!
http://bit.ly/16Adp1V
Then make them accountable.
Basically use current legislation more effectively, use the councils legal dept more efficiently and constructively to challenge a community issue. These travellers has a plethora of free advice over 'residency' and their Human rights... But what about the rights of the victims, the law abiding community ... Come on Wilmslow council / Police... Use the legislation you already have more effectively
As has already been indicated other councils are doing more....
Why arent you ??? Why dont Our local councillors go on the carnival field and challenge these travellers...??
Actions speak louder than words........ We see no action and hear little or no words...
Or ( being devils advocate ...)
Why dont the council just let this develop into a new equivalent of Appleby Horse fair.. but in Cheshire... I mean your part way there already...
Part V. 61
1) If the senior police officer present at the scene reasonably believes that two or more persons are trespassing on land and are present there with the common purpose of residing there for any period, that reasonable steps have been taken by or on behalf of the occupier to ask them to leave and—
(a) that any of those persons has caused damage to the land or to property on the land or used threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour towards the occupier, a member of his family or an employee or agent of his, or
(b) that those persons have between them six or more vehicles on the land,
he may direct those persons, or any of them, to leave the land and to remove any vehicles or other property they have with them on the land.
4) If a person knowing that a direction under subsection (1) above has been given which applies to him—
(a) fails to leave the land as soon as reasonably practicable, or
(b) having left again enters the land as a trespasser within the period of three months beginning with the day on which the direction was given,
he commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or a fine not exceeding level 4 on the standard scale, or both."
So it sounds like failing to leave when asked to do so is a criminal offence subject to a possible jail term.
They're obviously there for the purpose of residing there, and they have more than six vehicles, and they've been asked to leave. Should the police not be prosecuting them, never mind that flytipping is an offence too?
Does anyone know if they left as a result of action taken by the authorities or just of their own accord?
I cant say I've been 100% happy with the action taken (or lack of) by CEC or the local police but I hope that the events have sparked some debate about future dealings with these people. I wonder what the clean up cost will be this time?
Cheshire East Council has informed me that the gates have been padlocked and their Streetscape team will be along soon to begin the clean up.
Oh, and I signed the petition you referred to - thanks!
Your previous post seemed to suggest that you have photographic evidence. I am also aware that someone else also has recorded most of the vehicle registration plate numbers and colours and types of vehicles.
I will understand if you don't want to get involved in this process if you don't want too. However I do know of somebody who is prepared to take any photographic evidence of a crime to the police and ask for them to investigate it. I am quite happy to act as a third party to pass information on. Lisa Reeves has my contact details and I give her permission to pass them on to you.
In response to a previous question about my photos of the fly tipping, they weren't good enough and didn't show anything incriminating to be used as evidence unfortunately.
However, I have taken 48 photos today of the wreckage clearly showing the severity of the situation. The rubbish and left over work materials are piled high generally around the perimeter of the fields in the surrounding bushes and trees.
Things left include general rubbish, bottles, cans, plastics, food waste, harmful tarmac chemicals, used gas canisters, work based sand, broken stone, broken glass, broken up tarmac, bricks, car wheels, broken kids toys, used underwear & towels, used nappies, used sanitary products, takeaway cartons.
There was also at least 4 areas around the perimeter that we found in secluded bushes, that had been set up as human toilets with human faecal waste everywhere along with used tissues and wipes. Obviously in the recent heat you can imagine the smell of all this rotting waste!! Let's hope there isn't any heavy rain soon as local residents' gardens will end up swimming in god knows what!!
The main issue now is that the council need to get there backsides in gear to quickly make up for there clear initial incompetence and get the fields cleaned up AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! There needs to be special attention made to do extra thorough sweeps throughout all the surrounding bushes and trees to clean up any human waste & other potential hazards like syringes or sanitary waste.
The field in general is covered in broken glass too, making it unusable for children or dogs in the immediate future until the council have address this hazard.
I have also found two business card flyers that the gypsies must have dropped during their hasty exit this morning. Both are advertising driveway maintenance, repair and replacement. The cards have landline & mobile numbers, as well as websites for the "businesses" which i will be taking to the police as evidence in conjunction with my photos.
I don't think even our local Police force could dispute that all the fly tipped tarmac, stone and pavement rubble on the fields as well as these calling cards point to one simple conclusion!
My main question is:
If the police knew that these gypsies were in the area and had already caused £10,000 worth of damages at there last stop, then why haven't they had an officer there 24/7 ready to catch them in the act?
Surely the cost to have an officer sat in a car 24/7 on the field for the duration the gypsies were there would be far cheaper than the obvious & inevitable cost of the subsequent clean up!!!!!!
Fly tipping holds a sentence of up to 12 months in prison, a clear criminal act, and yet the Police have done nothing to stop it and allowed the culprits to just drive away without making any arrests at all? They have been let out to go and do the same thing somewhere else? It's bizarre. Arresting the gypsies over the criminal act of fly tipping has nothing to do with infringement of their "cultural beliefs or rights as an ethnic minority", it's just catching criminals and stopping them before they do the same thing in more places!
For example: Why weren't the gates locked to keep the gypsies in while the police assessed the damages to the council property, then they could make the relevant arrests before letting the families move on. Maybe even make them clear up all there own mess before they could go?
I think both the Council and Local Police need to look at their obvious short comings over this matter and have a good think about how simple measures could be taken in future to prevent any more gypsy disturbances in public areas and also to prevent any more waste of our tax money!
(If any pictures are required from me of the rubbish left, and or business cards I've found, don't hesitate to contact me)
Then he can explain why he, Cheshire Police, Cheshire East and Wilmslow Town Council couldn't be bothered to do anything to stop it.
So we save £13k on not buying civil regalia but have to spend £20k on clearing up after gypsies.
I despair. I really do.
So if you are going pen a question, make it an innocent one then give him the awkward ones when you arrive.