In recent years, our area has been affected by unauthorised traveller camps. They stop local people being able to enjoy their local parks and play areas and often leave behind damage and rubbish that have cost local taxpayers hundreds of thousands of pounds to clean up.

We are pressing the Government to strengthen the law further to make it easier for the police to take action, but Dudley Council have a responsibility too. Sadly, the new leadership of Dudley Council have just announced they are cancelling plans that would have protected local people from the nuisance and costs of illegal traveller camps.

Plans for an authorised temporary transit site in Coseley were agreed when Conservatives ran the Council, after a report compared nine possible sites and found that one was the best. Work had already begun and it could have been ready within weeks. An authorised site would mean that police could remove unauthorised traveller camps from parks and play areas immediately, instead of having to wait a week or more for a court order to evict them only for them to move to another park a few hundred yards down the road. If they don’t leave, they can be arrested.

Travellers staying at the authorised site have to pay for the cost of their pitch and also pay a £250 deposit, which they lose if they cause damage or leave a mess that needs to be cleaned up. Both Walsall and Wolverhampton have announced plans for transit sites, but Labour have decided that Dudley shouldn’t have one – meaning local people can expect even more illegal camps this summer as we will be the only part of the Black Country without the protection of a legal site.

Please use the button below to sign our petition, calling on Dudley Council to complete the proposed transit site. If Labour won’t put protecting our community first then a future Conservative-run Council will.