Many of you will have seen an increase in the number of travellers in areas of the constituency in recent months, often accompanied by anti-social behaviour and unauthorised encampments. These encampments can create huge amounts of mess and result in local residents being threatened with verbal and other abuse. This is not acceptable.
In the last week we have seen a new encampment on West Heath Park and today another in Kings Norton. I have been assured that the encampment on West Heath Park will be evicted tomorrow. Each time an encampment is brought to my attention I have got on to both the Council and, where crime and/or anti-social behaviour is reported, to the Police, to press for them to use the powers available to them to move the encampments on.
Too often the police and council undertake evictions, only for travellers to pop up 5 minutes down the road. That is why I am pressing the Council and Police to jointly review their responses over recent months and to consider whether a more strategic approach could secure better long term results.
In the meantime, however, remember that the Police can only act if incidents are reported to them. So if you see any violent, anti-social or threatening behaviour please do contact the police as quickly as possible on 101.
