Earlier this year we joined residents in pressing for action by Reading Borough Council to prevent traveller incursions on the green at Cintra Avenue.
Going forward, I wanted to know if Council officers had learned from the delays and problems in relation to this issue so that future problems could be reduced if not avoided altogether.
See below the public question I put to the Lead Member for Environment, Cllr Paul Gittings, last Tuesday evening and the answer he gave:
Traveller Incursions on Public Open Spaces
"What lessons have been learned by the Council in relation to handling traveller incursions on public open spaces in Reading following recent problems on Cintra Avenue and does the Council have any plans to revise its policies to improve their effectiveness?"
REPLY by Councillor Hoskin (Lead Councillor for Culture and Sport):
"When travellers visit an open space, dealing with the problems this causes and moving the travellers from the site is given the highest priority by the Council’s Parks Team.
At Cintra Park there was a significant change in the pattern of traveller visits. In the past, 6 months could be expected to elapse between incursions. However, in April this year the first traveller encampment for many years arrived; this was followed 2 weeks after they left by a second incursion. A third visit followed about another 2 weeks after eviction of the second group, but they were quickly moved by the police as it included travellers from a previous incursion, contravening a court order obtained by the council. In June a new group of travellers moved into Reading and on to land at Cintra in the week during which work to secure the site was due to commence.
The increased likelihood of subsequent encampments quickly following an initial visit is now acknowledged, and steps to secure a site where possible and appropriate can be implemented more quickly. We are now able to source materials and labour more quickly to install barriers to make traveller access to sites more difficult, while minimising the visual impact on the landscape.
Given past experience with locks’ and steel work’s being cut, installing barriers will reduce the likelihood of further incursions, but cannot be 100% effective. This must considered alongside cost. An assessment is made on; the likelihood of subsequent visits, the impact travellers have on neighbouring properties, the ease and effectiveness of installing barriers and cost, to determine what action will be taken. In addition the likely impact of such action will also be considered, simply displacing the encampments a few hundred metres up the road may be counter productive and as well expensive. Installation of barriers is not always the most appropriate action.
In recent years the Council has been improving the way in which it deals with travellers. A traveller liaison officer has now been employed for over a year to co-ordinate the Council’s response to these incursions. This has resulted in better communication with the Police and enforcement bodies as well as ensuring that the Council undertakes its statutory welfare duties, particularly where travellers’ children are involved.As part of this ongoing process of reviewing and improving how the Council deals with travellers, senior officers of both the Police and the Council are working to undertake joint enforcement to tackle both unauthorised encampments and associated unacceptable behaviour.
The Council is working to minimise the negative impact travellers make, but has to work within a statutory framework, limiting the action the Council and other enforcement bodies can take."
Hopefully the fencing that we successfully campaigned to get the Council to install on Cintra Avenue will do the trick, but only time will tell to see whether RBC has learned any lessons about how to handle these incursions better when they occur elsewhere in Reading in future.
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