Council will move travellers from school's land as soon as possible

A group of travellers have set up an illegal encampment on a site to the west of the A34 Wilmslow bypass.

About ten caravans arrived over the bank holiday weekend and set up camp on land owned by Wilmslow High School.

Councillor Gary Barton said "I notified the relevant people at Cheshire East of the illegal presence of gypsy traveller caravans on the land off the by-pass as soon as I became aware of it. Legal enforcement action is already under way and we will move the travellers along as soon as possible.

"Unfortunately, bank holiday weekends tend to be a 'hot spot' for this kind of trespassing. It is not acceptable when any group in our society acts as though they are immune to the planning laws that apply to the rest of us, especially when they make no financial contribution via Council Tax."

Wilmslow High School had to pay out around £6,000 to clear up after travellers camped on this field for a couple of weeks in June 2013 and left huge piles of rubbish and rubble, such as paving slabs and garden waste, behind. Since then a gate has been installed.

Cllr Rod Menlove said "'Wilmslow High School had improved the security at the entrance to the site but as ever over a bank holiday weekend, these measures appear not to be operational at the time when Travellers are driving in the vicinity.

"Short term we will again consider further improvements whilst following the lengthy legal process to move these Travellers on.

"Medium term the only solution is a Traveller temporary pitches site, so that the police can enforce immediate removal. Cheshire East has a legal duty, as do other councils, to supply such sites and is doing this within the Local Plan process. It can't come soon enough."

A Cheshire East Council spokesperson said: "We have visited the travellers at the site and tomorrow we intend to serve them with direction to leave.

"However, if they do not leave we will have to obtain a court order."

Updated: 9pm Tuesday 26th May.

Cllr Rod Menlove said "The relevant checks and paperwork have all now been completed and we will be serving a Section 77 direction to leave tomorrow morning.

"We will be keeping up regular visits and checks to ensure the travellers move on asap."

Updated: 3.45pm Wednesday 27th May

Cllr Rod Menlove said "Cheshire East has today served the 'direction to leave' order with a deadline of 5pm today. If the travellers do not move today, we will serve them with a summons tomorrow, which will have a court hearing date for this Friday."

Updated: 6.30pm Friday 29th May

Cllr Rod Menlove informed me "'The summons to leave was served on Thursday. The court hearing was at 9.30 today and a Court Order secured. This has now been served and the Travellers left at lunchtime today.

"Since they were not there for an extended period, hopefully there will not be too much mess to clear up."

Tags:
A34 Bypass, Travellers
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