New traveller camp at Shard End will not be built

Jun 17 2010 by Neil Elkes, Birmingham Mail

CONTROVERSIAL plans for Birmingham’s second official traveller camp have been scrapped following a budget cut from the new coalition Government.

A former sewage works site next to an industrial park at Shard End had been earmarked as a new location for a camp and it became a major local issue during last month’s election.

Residents had reacted with fury at the plan and nine businesses on the Yardley Brook Estate wrote to Birmingham City Council saying they would consider relocating should the camp be built.

City housing chief Coun John Lines said: “It will come as a relief to the people of Shard End and Birmingham that the new Government has scrapped this forced investment in traveller camps. It means this money can now be spent on providing houses for families who pay their way. I welcome this change.”

But Labour’s Coun Ian Ward, who also welcomed the cancellation, doubted the camp would have ever been built.

He said: “It was never an appropriate location for a traveller site.

“It is designated as industrial land and would have been almost impossible to change that under planning regulations.”

He also claimed it was too close to an existing site at Castle Vale.

The previous Labour government had ordered Birmingham to find pitches for an extra 29 caravans as part of a £6.5 million investment in traveller camps across the West Midlands. But new Tory local government minister Eric Pickles has scrapped all investment in traveller camps and announced plans to turn trespass from a civil to a criminal matter to make it easier for landowners to remove camps.

At present, Birmingham has 20 permanent pitches under the M6 at Tameside Drive, Castle Vale, but this has been almost exclusively occupied by a single family, the Dohertys, since 1987 despite council attempts to evict them.

Last week the council, which has been hit with massive legal bills over the eviction, announced it was to appeal against a court ruling allowing the Dohertys to stay at the site.