UK Authorities Continue to Threaten Travellers with Eviction

18 May 2007

According to the Somerset County Gazette of 24 August 2006, Taunton Deane District Council authorities told a group of Travellers living on an unauthorised campsite in North Curry, England, "Get out within five weeks, or we'll take action to remove you." At the same time, the Council warned the Travellers that attempts to stall their eviction by putting in planning applications for the field where they had built sixteen units would get them nowhere. The Travellers set up the site sometime in 2005 and were given a 26 September 2006 deadline for leaving the site. Council leader John Williams was quoted by the Somerset County Gazette as having stated, "If they're still there on 27 September, it will be unauthorised and we'll pursue enforcement action through the courts."

In other news, according to the local newspaper Cambridge News of 21 August 2006, a group of Travellers face legal action to move their caravans from a site they set up without council permission. The group moved to a three-acre field at Beck Row, near Mildenhall, England, during Easter and set up six caravans and fences and hedges. Having established the site, the group sought planning permission from the Forest Heath District Council, but the Council refused the request. Cambridge News further reported that the Council called for enforcement action for the High Court injunction it secured, asking for a halt to work on the site, as well as a committal order – with the threat of jail – for anyone breaking the injunction.

(Cambridge News, Somerset County Gazette)

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