Brighton & Hove Conservatives are incredulous that Preston Park has once again been allowed to be taken over by an unauthorised traveller encampment for the second time in as many weeks.
Travellers evicted from Wild Park by police and council officials on Wednesday have dispersed to a variety of locations around the city including Preston Park where the gates allowing caravan access to the park remained unlocked after the Wild Park eviction.
Conservative council candidate for Preston Park Ward, Lee Wares, said: “When I spoke with residents of the City using Preston Park yesterday evening, not one person was in favour of the encampments. They find it incomprehensible that in planning the eviction from Wild Park nobody thought to close the gates preventing caravan access to Preston Park. It is incompetency to not consider that dispersing such a large group from Wild Park would lead to Preston Park being targeted. Without exception they feel that enough liberties have been taken and the Council should stop wasting money on tolerating the situation. They feel that the Police should equally start to consider the rights of local residents.”
“It is also ridiculous that the Council and Police are now conducting a Community Impact Assessment and welfare checks on the same group that were assessed when they first arrived at Preston Park several weeks ago, assessed again when they went to Wild Park and now for the third time as they return to Preston Park. What do the officers think will have changed?”
Conservative Group Leader, Cllr. Geoffrey Theobald, added: “There is a very simple solution for areas such as Preston Park and that is to designate them as Sensitive Sites. By doing so the Police can evict immediately, nobody will suffer the disruption and money will not be wasted.”
“Unfortunately the simple solution is not possible because the Green and Labour Parties have not supported the motion we put before the Council twice in the last year or so asking for sensitive sites to be designated. It would seem that they are not as concerned as the residents that our parks, playing fields and other green spaces are subject to huge unauthorised encampments.”
Warren Morgan, leader of the Labour and Co-operative group on Brighton & Hove Council, said: “The council does have a sensitive site protocol drawn up in conjunction with the police that we support. However, it remains the decision of the police as to whether they use their powers of immediate eviction. The council does not have these powers and the Tory-led Government has done nothing to change that.”
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