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Liberal Democrat District Councillor for Buckland and Milber Learn more
by admin on 3 July, 2020
We are experiencing the annual “invasion” of travellers. They are , as usual, causing much annoyance and worry for local residents.
I have been told that Government have issued instructions that they should not be moved on without ” exceptional circumstances”.
I have today ” encouraged” Teignbridge officers to find whatever circumstances are needed and to issue legal papers for eviction. This is being done.
I have no objections to people living an ” alternative life style” so long as it is lived within the law and acceptable codes of behaviour. Sadly, all too often this is not the case and we council tax payers are left to pick up the bill for the mess they leave behind, to say nothing of the damage caused.
Some residents, totally mistakenly, seem to think Teignbridge Council actually doesn’t mind them coming onto council land. Let me give the strongest denial of such wrong thinking. Nothing could be further from the truth!!!
It is as though my house had been burgled and now the burglar was trashing my house. Would you or I welcome such actions? Of course not, and it’s nonsense to even think so.
I have today asked officers to take all necessary action to evict these latest invaders, and to similarly repeat at every recurring occasion.
A genuine problem of course is the likliehood that having been evicted from site X they will simply pitch up at Y. We are trying to defend those possible sites, but defending them is not as simple as it might sound.
I quite understand the need to react to things that happen, but this is a year on year issue and your x and y scenario will continue unless some legal transit sites are created – something that has been mooted over the years but overlooked time and again by leading politicians. As part of your GESP membership how about including transit sites in your proposals backed by some serious intent? Just a suggestion.
I couldn’t agree with you more and have raised exactly that twice this week with John Hart and DCC. It needs County to act as a catalyst to improve the situation county wide. TDC is actually better than some other Devon authorities…East Devon for instance has no sites, but there is a real need to have somewhere to evict to, rather than simply evict. Thanks for comment.
Hmm – not sure why DCC has to be the catalyst… why not use the Devon Districts Forum or at least your GESP to start the ball rolling? Districts are the housing authorities after all?
I have raised the issue at DDF, and I’m not concerned by the route, rather the destination. I also raised it at DCC last week. As it is a Devon wide problem, and with a desire to be all embracing/working across boundaries, I feel County could have a valuable coordinating role to play. DCC also own land for potential sites.
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