Government to take action on 'rights' of illegal traveller camps

HUMAN rights rules are stopping councils and police from dealing with illegal traveller camps, Communities Secretary Eric Pickles fears.

Activists on Dale Farm sitePH

Activists resisting eviction on the Dale Farm site

He said: “The Government has given councils stronger powers to tackle unauthorised sites. 

“Last year we issued clear guidance to councils, reminding them of the full range of measures they have, but I remain concerned that councils and police commissioners are not using their powers due to the gold-plating of human rights rules. 

“The public want to see fair play in the planning system.” 

Gold-plating refers to the idea that human rights rules should take precedence over other laws. 

It is clearly unacceptable that communities should suffer the distress and expense of repeated unauthorised camping.

Eric Pickles

The Conservatives have announced plans for a new Bill of Rights which would stop this happening. 

Planning guidelines issued last year spelt out the powers councils and landlords have to remove unauthorised traveller sites, protest camps and squatters. 

They also covered how to tackle the mess caused by the sites on public and private land. 

The powers include temporary notices to stop and remove unauthorised caravans, preemptive injunctions and possession orders to remove trespassers. 

The guidelines also emphasised that council officers should work closely with the police and other agencies to stop camps being set up when local authority offices are shut. 

The aim is to prevent a repeat of Dale Farm in Essex three years ago, when bailiffs moved in to evict travellers after a long-running legal battle. 

The Government has also made £60million available since March 2012 to help councils and housing associations build new traveller sites, which have grown in number from 7,182 in July 2011 to 9,313 in July 2014. 

Mr Pickles said: “It is clearly unacceptable that communities should suffer the distress and expense of repeated unauthorised camping. 

"I will be having urgent discussions with my ministerial colleagues in the Home Office and in the Ministry of Justice to look at what more we can do about this.” 

In October Justice Secretary Chris Grayling unveiled Conservative plans for a new British Bill of Rights and Responsibilities, which he said would transform the way the country’s human rights laws work. 

It was prompted by a growing sense of frustration with Labour’s Human Rights Act and rulings by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. 

Crucially, Mr Grayling said the new Bill would stop Article 8, the Right to Family Life, being used for purposes it was never intended to cover. 

He said: “It should not be used by an individual to say that their right to family life allows them to override the law that applies to every other citizen, for example travellers occupying green belt land and claiming human rights trump planning laws.” 

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