8.1 The presence and incidence of unauthorised encampments is a
significant issue impacting upon local authorities, landowners, Gypsies and Travellers, the settled population and the public purse. Just as unauthorised developments are often cited as a major source of tension - unauthorised encampments are often the type of
accommodation which has become synonymous with Gypsies and Travellers and is often a further source of tension with the wider community.
8.2 Due to the nature of unauthorised encampments (i.e. unpredictability, seasonal fluctuations etc.), it is very difficult to get a comprehensive picture of need for residential and/or transit accommodation without considering a range of interconnected issues. This section, however, seeks to look at the ‘known’ prevalence of unauthorised encampments and views of households on such encampments in order to draw some tentative indication as to level and nature of need for authorised
provision.
Policies on managing unauthorised encampments
8.3 East Staffordshire, Staffordshire Moorlands and Staffordshire County Council have written policies for managing unauthorised
encampments. Local authorities are party to joint agreements or protocols with other agencies for managing unauthorised
encampments as follows:
East Staffordshire Police and other agencies
Newcastle Police, other LAs and other agencies
Stafford No
Staffordshire Moorlands No30
Stoke-on-Trent Police
8.4 In all cases, first contact with Gypsies and Travellers on unauthorised encampments is usually made by a council officer. Newcastle and Stoke-on-Trent stated that a Police officer can also be the first contact.
Good practice on managing unauthorised encampments
8.5 Good practice on managing unauthorised encampments was identified by:
• Stoke-on-Trent: There is a working protocol between the Stoke-on- Trent division of Staffordshire police and the council to establish a consistent and joint approach between the two agencies.
30
Although during a focus group it was mentioned that there is a draft procedure in place which will be formalised pending the outcome of this GTAA.
78 • Staffordshire Moorlands: The officer asks what the intentions are;
if they say they will move on in the next few days, then the officer will revisit to check this has been done. If they are still there, they will check if there are any problems which have prevented them moving on (e.g. ill health, etc). The officer will check if they have anywhere else to go to, and will ask if they wish to see a housing advisor from the Housing Options team. The officer will request that all rubbish is bagged up and left in a pile if they are unable to
remove it themselves. The approach this council takes is measured and no enforcement action has yet had to be taken. They have devised a questionnaire to use, which is a quasi-welfare
assessment including a number of issues such as education, health, etc.
• Stafford: Has a long standing protocol with the Police. They have not had a problem in managing encampments as they rarely happen and when they do they only stay for a short time before moving on.
Geographical patterns and incidence of unauthorised encampments
8.6 All authorities keep a log of unauthorised encampments: Staffordshire Moorlands and Stoke-on-Trent log all known encampments while East Staffordshire, Newcastle and Stafford log some (in one instance (ES) on council land and elsewhere when notified).
8.7 The number of separate encampments experienced during 2006 is shown below. As can be seen the distribution is very uneven, with most occurring in Stoke-on-Trent (see map 1).
Stoke-on-Trent 23 (normally 1 in area at a time) East Staffordshire 8 (normally 1 in area at a time)
Newcastle 7 (normally 1 in area at a time)
Staffordshire Moorlands 1 (normally none in area)
Stafford 0 (normally none in area)
8.8 Details of location, number of caravans, duration and action taken were provided for 28 encampments (including 12 in Stoke-on-Trent). The average encampment size was just under 7 caravans (range 0 (horses) to 25; however, 78% of encampments involved fewer than 10
caravans. Average encampment size was larger in East Staffordshire (10 caravans) than in Newcastle (6 caravans) and Stoke-on-Trent (5 caravans).
8.9 During the period of fieldwork for this assessment the areas of
Newcastle-under-Lyme, Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Moorlands experienced most encampments see Table 32, which looks at numbers of achieved interviews by local authority area. There are a number of reasons for the particular geographical spread of encampments:
79 • Areas of Stoke-on-Trent are currently being regenerated, which
means that there are a number of pieces of, yet-to-be re-developed land which Gypsies and Travellers tend to use;
• The transit pitches on the local authority site are currently closed; • The severe flooding meant that higher ground (i.e. Staffordshire
Moorlands) was perhaps used more often; and,
• Proximity to major roads and through fares (Stoke-on-Trent), particularly with regard to North-South travelling and use of sea ports (Holyhead and Liverpool).
Table 32: Number of encampments by local authority (April – September 2007)
Authority No. of encampments
East Staffordshire 0 Newcastle-under-Lyme 4
Stafford 0
Staffordshire Moorlands 4 Stoke-on-Trent 23
8.10 In terms of the information provided by local authorities for
encampments during 2006, the duration was given for 19 of the 28 encampments. The average was just under 3 weeks, but this is skewed by a small number of unusually long-lasting encampments. Only 4 encampments (21%) lasted longer than 3 weeks. Data is too
incomplete to make safe comparisons of duration between authorities. 8.11 In terms of action taken:
Stoke-on-Trent: 5 resolved by negotiation; 4 by a private owner taking action; 3 by a court order
East Staffordshire: 4 known uses of Civil Procedure Rules 55 (out of 8)
Newcastle: notice served in all cases
Staffordshire Moorlands: all resolved informally
Trends in unauthorised encampments
8.12 Authorities were asked how the number of unauthorised encampments has changed over the past 5 years. Experience seems to have varied: numbers have increased in East Staffordshire; decreased in Stafford; and, remained broadly the same elsewhere.
8.13 In terms of size of group, all said that encampments had remained broadly the same size over the past 5 years.
80 8.14 Other changes over time noted were:
• Stoke-on-Trent: over the last 2/3 years encampments have been on hard surfaces only, not fields, etc.
• East Staffordshire: over the last 3/4 years, encampments have mainly been by families who want to remain in the locality. The majority of these families are now on a site run by a neighbouring authority which may account for the apparent reduction in
encampments locally during the assessment period.
8.15 When asked how they expected the number of encampments to change over the next 5 years, all either did not know or expected no significant change.
8.16 It is clear from the responses from the local authority officers that unauthorised encampments are often an issue for authorities, particularly in Stoke-on-Trent. Stoke-on-Trent commented that the addition of a number of transit pitches on the local authority site meant that over the last 8 years (since 1999) the number of unauthorised encampments have been reduced by approximately 60% on previous levels.
• Staffordshire Moorlands and Stoke-on-Trent experience more encampments in summer; the other areas note no clear variation over the year.
• Most involved in unauthorised encampments are said to be ‘in transit’ in all areas other than East Staffordshire, where most are said to be local.
8.17 From reviewing the available information trends are unclear for unauthorised encampments.
Living on unauthorised encampments – views from Gypsies and Travellers
8.18 Fourteen of the 15 households interviewed on unauthorised
encampments provided details about how many living units they had; 11 households had 1 trailer and 3 households had 2 trailers. No households had more than 2 trailers. The average number of living units was 1.2 trailers.
8.19 When the average household size for encampments is divided by the average number of trailers households possess this provides us with an average of 3 people in each trailer on unauthorised encampments. 8.20 Four in ten people felt that this did not provide them with enough
space. A lack of space was attributed to both an inability to afford additional accommodation and an inability to obtain an authorised pitch on a site.
81 R a d b o u r n e S W A D L I N C O T E S t a n t o n C a s t l e Gr e s l e y N e w h a l l C a l d w e l l C o t o n i n t h e E l m s R o s l i s t o n L i n t o n L u l l i n g t o n R o l l e s t o n E g g i n t o n C a r F a c t o r y H i l t o n E t w a l l B u r n a s t o n R i v e r T re n t B u r t o n - o n - T r e n t S t a p e n h i l l H o r n i n g l o w W i n s h i l l S t re t t o n N e w t o n S o l n e y T r u s l e y L o n g l a n e C u l l a n d M o u n t D a l b u r y H o l l i n g t o n L o n g f o rd T h u r v a s t o n L e e s H a t t o n F o s t o n S c ro p t o n T u t b u r y & H a t t o n T u t b u r y M a r s t o n o n D o v e C h u rc h B ro u g h t o n S u t t o n o n t h e H i l l T a t e n h i l l D u n s t a l l A n s l o w Ga t e R a n g e m o r e B r a n s t o n A n s l o w B U R T ON U P ON T R E N T T r e n t a n d M e r s e y C a n a l B a r t o n - u n d e r- N e e d w o o d A l r e w a s W a l t o n -o n - T r e n t C a t t o n H a l l F ra d l e y C ro x a l l S u d b u ry H a n b u r y D r a y c o t t M o r e t o n H a n b u r y W o o d e n d D r a y c o t t i n t h e C l a y N e w b o ro u g h M a r c h i n g t o n W o o d l a n d s M a r c h i n g t o n W o o d h o u s e s M o r re y Y o x a l l K i n g ' s B ro m l e y Or g r e a v e R i l e y h i l l H a d l e y E n d H o a r C r o s s U T T O X E T E R R i v e r D o v e W a l d l e y R o c e s t e r D o v e ri d g e B l i t h f i e l d R e s r R i v e r B l i t h e B l i t h b u ry A d m a s t o n N e w t o n A b b o t s B r o m l e y H a m s t a l l R i d w a r e H a n d s a c r e R u g e l e y T r e n t V a l l e y P i p e R i d w a re H i l l R i d w a r e M a v e s y n R i d w a re A r m i t a g e U p p e r L o n g d o n L o n g d o n K i n g s t o n e T h e B l y t h e U t t o x e t e r B l o u n t ' s Gr e e n S t r a m s h a l l B r a m s h a l l L o n g d o n G re e n M i d d l e t o n Gr e e nW i t h i n g t o n B e a m h u rs t C h u r c h L e i g h F i e l d S l i t t i n g M i l l R u g e l e y T o w n E t c h i n g h i l l R U GE L E Y B r e r e t o n B i s h t o n C o l t o n C o l w i c h L i t t l e H a y w o o d G ra t w i c h C o t o n Ga y t o n F ra d s w e l l M i l w i c h Gr i n d l e y W e s t o n T i x a l l I n g e s t re H o p t o n H i x o n Gr e a t H a y w o o d D r o i n t o n S t o w e -b y -C h a r t l e y L e a H e a t h S T A F F OR D M i l f o rd W e e p i n g C r o s s P e n k ri d g eW o l g a r s t o n H u n t i n g t o n P e n k r i d g e C l i f t o n A S H B O U R N E W y a s t o n S n e l s t o n M a p l e t o n M a y f i e l d Os m a s t o n B o y l e s t o n e L i t t l e C u b l e y Gr e a t C u b l e y M a r s t o n M o n t g o m e ry S o m e rs a l H e rb e rt Y e a v e l e y R o d s l e y P a rw i c h F e n n y B e n t l e y T i s s i n g t o n A l s o p e n l e D a l e T h o r p e S h e l d o n M o n y a s h P i k e h a l l B i g g i n H e a t h c o t e M i d d l e t o n E l l a s t o n e M i d d l e M a y f i e l d R o s t o n N o rb u r y S t a n t o n W e t t o n B l o r e S w i n s c o e R i v e r M a n i f o l d M i l l d a l e A l s t o n e f i e l d I l a m C a l t o n H o p e d a l e F l a g g H a rt i n g t o n S h e e n B ru n d P i l s b u r y C ro w d e c o t e R a m s h o rn D e n s t o n e B r a d l e y i n t h e M o o rs A l t o n A l t o n T o w e r s F a r l e y W o o t t o n C re s s w e l l L o w e r T e a n A l k m o n t o n G re a t Ga t e F o l e C r o x d e n H o l l i n g t o n C h e c k l e y H u l m e E n d U p p e r E l k s t o n e