Cheshire East Council has installed a gate on Earl Road, Handforth to deter illegal encampments and fly tipping which has cost taxpayers over £4000 in the past two years.
Travellers visited the site and set up home illegally on seventeen occasions in 2014 costing taxpayers over £3000 to remove them. The court costs in 2014 were £1,717 whilst the clean up bill totalled £1,377.
This compares with six illegal encampments at Earl Road in 2013 which cost £552 in court fees and £486 to clean up the site.
Councillor Les Gilbert, Cheshire East's Cabinet member for localism and enforcement, said: "We have taken this proactive measure to save Council Tax payers from further expense.
"Over the past two years, the use of this site for illegal encampments has cost the residents of Cheshire East more than £4,000 and the bill has increased year-on-year.
"Rather than wait for the next visit and potentially see the costs of court action and clean-up rise still further, we have taken positive steps to prevent this anti-social behaviour from continuing to be a drain on our resources."
Comments
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Sturdy steel posts and fence needed to complete the job, methinks.
If it happens again in the area, as I'm sure it will, I just hope the Authorities concerned will react promptly with a permanent solution!
As commented above there's not much of an obstacle for resistance here.
Lets wait and watch ! Who on earth sanctioned this bright idea ?
The cost to the council would reduce significantly if you prosecuted those causing damage, parking offences, fly tipping. ‘AT THE TIME’ of offending instead of sitting on hands.
If you really believe this is the best solution perhaps you could also "gate off" areas of Wilmslow and Alderley Edge to stop parking there as well ?
Common sense would appear not so common here,Try harder next time !
As silly as this seems, when the travellers all get back from there winter sun in the Canaries they are just going to park up round the corner.
Got nicked for scrap !
This is like installing a burglar alarm in the hope another house gets burgled instead. Of course you know who the burglars are and keep catching them in the act, but every time you do they are let off scot-free.
Cheshire Police and Cheshire East continually turned a blind eye to the fly tipping and damage caused. John Dwyer, our PCC also proved useless and his pre-election promise to tackle low level crime proved to be hollow.
This gate means more expense for Cheshire rate payers and does absolutely nothing to solve the root cause.
The travellers will still come back. They will just set up an illegal encampment in another part of Wilmslow or Handforth instead.
It's not a highway, or so the police said when the travellers were on it. You really couldn't make it up could you.