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CARAVANS ... one of the traveller sites in Rochdale
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Clean-up cost £23K
Faye Adams12/ 7/2008
ROCHDALE Council has spent more than £23,000 dealing with travellers over the last three months.
Around £3,000 was spent tackling each of the eight visits made by travellers since April as they stopped at a various sites around the borough.
A total of £23,257 has gone towards employing bailiffs and the cost of cleaning up after the travellers have gone.
On average the council deals with 15 ‘unauthorised encampments’ a year ranging from a single family to up to 70 caravans.
At a meeting of Rochdale Township Committee on Wednesday, councillors discussed how to tackle the problem. Martin Taylor, from environmental management, told them the township alone had contributed over £15,000.
He said: "It’s a significant amount of money but what worries me more is the effect it has on the local residents.
"As soon as they turn up we get a lot of calls and straight away the phones start ringing."
He congratulated the police for their ‘zero tolerance’ approach to prevent travellers setting up camp, adding: "An officer parked a police car across Mandale Park and sat for three hours on a Friday night with one of my officers."
Two weeks ago caravans appeared on Balderstone Park where repairs had to be carried out to the land on their departure.
Previously, residents on Turf Hill complained of having to clear up human waste and enduring travellers’ children riding motorbikes up and down when 80 caravans parked on land in Stiups Lane.
Prior to this, complaints were received about problems on Burton Park and Cronkeyshaw Common.
Castleton councillor Pat Flynn said "They are not the proud roaming race and leave sites in a dreadful mess."
But private sector development manager, Gillian Lucas told councillors there was a minority of ‘problem families’ within the travelling community involved with criminal and anti social behaviour.
She said gypsies and travellers were the most socially excluded group in society and faced ‘considerable prejudice’.
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13/07/2008 at 00:25
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