As many people will know we had a traveller encampment on Riverside Park recently which gave concern to a lot of local people

Local Councillors quickly contacted the police and Council officers to express concerned.

If entry to the park had been forced the a court order can remove them within 24hrs, however that is almost impossible to prove.  So the leaseholder of the land, in this case Active Nation, not the Council, had to serve a notice to the travellers giving them a date to leave.  If that is not complied with the next stage is a hearing at court which will usually give 24hrs notice to leave.  After which Court bailiffs and the police can remove them.  On this occasion they all left before the deadline.  The whole process takes just over a week to complete.

Most of the travellers caused no problems and took their rubbish with them when they left. However it is clear that the behaviour of some was appalling, dumping rubbish, shouting abuse, lightning fires, driving quad bikes across the park etc.  we hope in the future the police take more action than they appeared to on this occasion.

As there are virtually no travellers sites in Hampshire (apart from a small number of, already occupied, permanent sites) and travellers are not allowed to stop on the highway this problem is likely to reoccur.  Councils & the Police need to come up with a longer term solution.