Anger as Travellers set up yet another illegal camp in Chesterfield

Travellers set up their latest illegal camp on land off Storforth Lane, in Hasland, on Saturday – with Derbyshire Police saying they are ‘monitoring the situation’.

A spokesperson for the force said: “We received a call just before 9.10am on Saturday, October 1, reporting that a group of Travellers had moved onto a field off Storforth Lane in Chesterfield.

“Officers have visited the area to speak with the group and continue to monitor the situation, as per standard procedure. They are liaising with Chesterfield Borough Council and other relevant authorities on the matter.”

However Tupton and Wingerworth borough councillor Ross Shipman, who has been contacted by local residents concerned about the camp, said police should have done more over the weekend in order to remove the Travellers.

He has appealed to the Derbyshire Police on Twitter, posting: “Will @DerbysPolice use their existing powers to move them on ASAP, or will they allow it like usual? Moving them now using Section 61 would send strong message.”

He told the Derbyshire Times: “The police have the power to remove an illegal incumbent by issuing a section 61 Notice, which gives the incumbent 24 hours to shift. If they don't, the police have the power to come and remove them.

“As I found in the past, the police are very reluctant to actually issue the section 61 notices, they've probably issued less than a handful in the whole of Derbyshire this year.

“They don’t do anything about the encampments and this is really frustrating because as a consequence they end up leaving the cost and the process of removing them to the landowner. It costs thousands to get it through the court and hire the solicitor. It costs even more to hire private security to remove the encampment, when really the police should be doing it.

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“If the police did it as soon as possible, it would send a strong message they're going to get moved away instantly every time. And by not doing it and letting them stay, it sends a message that if they come on a Friday, then they know they've got until Monday the earliest to go, because the court judgement will not be sorted until then. So they are staying for the whole weekend causing trouble and you're probably looking at Tuesday before they are able to get rid of it.

“And it's just this lack of interest by the police, which really frustrates me and it definitely frustrates the residents in my ward because we've had it time and time again. We've got many green spaces and we've had to spend thousands to put in place security, fences, height barriers, concrete blocks to stop these illegal encampments and protect public spaces.”

This is the latest camp set up by Travellers in Chesterfield in recent weeks. On Saturday, September 24, residents in the Hasland area reported that a group of travellers had established an encampment in land off Heathcote Drive, close to Calow Lane.

Chesterfield Borough Council has been contacted for a comment on the situation.