9:10am Friday 3rd September 2010
By Marc Meneaud
Taxpayers will have to foot the bill for a “disgraceful mess” left by travellers as the authorities continue to chase groups around the district.
Legal action has been taken to evict more than a dozen families who set up camp at Thompson Lane, Baildon.
It is only a few days since they were moved there from a site in Coach Road – about 500 metres away. Bradford Council now faces the job of clearing up mess including broken paving stones, gas canisters, tarmac and tree cuttings at the site near Glenaire Primary School.
The cleaning bill is expected to run into thousands of pounds. Bradford Council’s Green group leader, Councillor Martin Love, told the Telegraph & Argus he wanted to see more action taken against travellers for littering and fly tipping.
“It is an absolutely disgraceful mess down there,” he said.
“There is a huge amount of rubbish – a lot of it in deep undergrowth and in hedges.
“The Council fines people for dropping litter but this is not litter, it is industrial waste.
“If companies dropped industrial waste, they would be given even larger fines.
“There needs to be a clarification in Council policy and some way of getting recompense to council tax payers when they leave this mess.”
Coun Love said a resident had told him it was the first time in 50 years travellers had set up an illegal camp in Thompson Lane.
The travellers are believed to be the same families who were moved on from Coach Road and High Bank Lane, near Northcliffe Golf Club, he said.
They had used a digger to remove concrete blocks laid to prevent illegal camps.
Coun Love said he believed they had now moved to Redbeck playing fields at Shipley Primary School. The Council is expected to move them on by Tuesday.
“The travellers do not do themselves any favours,” said Coun Love. “They complain about getting a bad press but when they leave things in a state, you only have sympathy with the residents.”
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