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POLICE talk to travellers at a site on Hillgate
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Travellers are drawn to town
26/ 3/2008
NEARLY half the illegally camped travellers in the north west are pitched in Stockport.
In July 2007, the last date for which official statistics are available, the region had 151 travellers’ caravans parked up on sites against the wishes of landowners.
Of those, 80 were in Greater Manchester, with all but ten in Stockport.
As numbers of "untolerated" pitches - camps set up illegally despite protests from the owners of the sites - plumetted in other authorities, they tripled in Stockport, rising from 22 to 70 pitches in six months.
The Council is now looking at how to tackle the problem, as it is legally required to assess the needs of travellers within its boundaries.
The authority spent £73,000 on moving on travellers in 2007, including the costs of court proceedings and securing sites after convoys have moved on.
Since the Express reported on Stockport’s latest encampment, readers have expressed their dismay on our website.
Dozens of caravans moved onto the Crown Royal Industrial estate, off Hillgate, last week - leaving piles of rubble at their previous camp off Lancashire Hill.
Website user BJ13 commented: "It is disgusting and gives a bad name to the travellers out there who clean up after themselves and have respect for their surroundings and neighbours.
"I have stayed on several sites all over the country, and the travellers I know always make sure they leave the area how they found it. Unfortunately, the few that make this mess probably will never change as they just don’t give a damn."
Unofficial figures estimate 50 caravans are currently moving in and out of Stockport, but officers say it is hard to be exact.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, a row raged over where to put a permanent site, with the former Adswood tip and two locations in Bredbury touted.
Current consultations between Manchester councils could result in a piece of land being designated for that use within Stockport’s Local Development Plan. But the idea of a permanent site has been met with criticism from readers.
A web user calling themselves Sheep said: "I am very much against the idea of dedication of land in the area to travellers. I can’t help but feel it will be more trouble than it is worth. It is likely to lead to a no go area."
Most recent 2 of 7 user comments
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15/04/2008 at 21:15
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