Harlow travellers camp set-up after court ruling expires

An unauthorised camp site has been set-up on land near Harlow Leisurezone

An MP has criticised a council that failed to renew an injunction banning unauthorised camps after travellers moved into the town.

About 30 caravans moved into Second Avenue, in Harlow, Essex, overnight.

Conservative MP Robert Halfon said the camp was "deeply worrying". The Gypsy Council said its members would happily pay to use stopping places if provided.

Labour-run Harlow Council said it had attempted to extend the high court ruling that expired earlier this year.

The original injunction was granted in an "unprecedented" ruling in 2015, and was applied for jointly by Harlow Council and Essex County Council. At the time, the Gypsy Council described it as "like a police state".

Under the expired injunction, which was last extended in 2017, breaches would result in fines or custodial sentences for offenders.

The most recent ruling protected 320 sites in the town but is no longer valid.

'Zero tolerance'

The council said it withdrew its renewal application while in court in July because it did not believe it would be supported "without sufficient evidence of a current issue".

But Mr Halfon, who was been Harlow's MP since 2010, said the failure to gain an extension had provided "the green light" for unauthorised groups like the one which arrived near Harlow Leisurezone.

He said: "Residents should not be asked to spend their hard earned money cleaning up the waste left by these unauthorised encampments, or fighting the anti-social behaviour.

"There must be zero tolerance without equivocation towards illegal encampments."

'No council provision'

Harlow Council said its officers had visited the site and were working with Essex Police to "to take what action the law allows" in order to "resolve this issue as soon as possible".

Joseph Jones, director of the Gypsy Council, said: "If local councils provided permanent, transit or even negotiated stopping places, where our community could pay for the facilities provided, there would not be a problem.

"We seem to find the the wrong place, but at no time, has anyone pointed to or provided the right place."

He added that travellers were treated as "political footballs".