Park is all Clear again

As you may know, earlier this week, a group of travellers invaded Bedford’s Park again; they arrived late on Wednesday afternoon with approx 6 to 8 caravans and trucks, they informed the Council they were going to a funeral, however later they admitted they had come from Surrey and were on holiday !

Cllr Mann reacted quickly to this new threat - following the last illegal camp in August 2007 – by e-mailing the Chief Executive and senior officers at Havering Council and the Police, warning them of the situation; this allowed them to act quickly in starting the process to remove them the following morning.

Sadly, travellers are allowed to use their human rights and the only way we can remove them is by a legal process. Council officers and the “Havering Park Ward” Police Safer Neighbourhood Team served an eviction notice on the site on Thursday morning under Section 77 of the Criminal Justice & Public Order Act, which gives the travellers 48 hours to leave the site.

However, after receiving the notice and the threat of a warrant for arrest on Monday morning if they had not left within the 48 hour time limit, they obviously thought twice about their actions, and decided to leave the camp late on Thursday evening without the need for further legal process. The fact that a temporary Parks Security company with huge dogs was placed in the park overnight, we are sure, also made them think twice and told them that they are un-welcome in our Borough.

All three of your Residents Association Action members, Cllr Andy Mann, Kevin Tonks and Denis Stevens spent some time up at the park, talking to local residents and the saw for themselves the situation. May we thank everyone for their help in supplying information to us, so that we could then in turn inform Council Officers what was going on more easily.