Travellers

When an unauthorised gypsy and traveller encampment park their vehicles on a piece of land belonging to the council, the council will take court action to recover possession of the land.

When dealing with those who trespass on council land, the council is required by law to follow a set process:

  1. We will serve a notice requiring those on council land to vacate it within 24 hours. The notice contains a warning of legal action being commenced where there is a failure to adhere to the notice.

  2. If the encampment remains on the council land after the expiry of the notice, we will begin legal proceedings.

  3. The county court will set the date for us to attend when we will request a court order for possession of our land. Although these matters are treated by the court as urgent, it does not guarantee that a judge will be immediately available to hear the application and the court hearing could exceed 10 working days.

  4. Once an application is granted, we will instruct the court bailiff to attend the site and make arrangements to remove those trespassing.

Availability of judges and court bailiffs are determined by the court. These are factors which the council do not control and can cause delay.