Following pressure from Conservative councillors and Paul Scully MP, the Council sought an injunction against travellers on public land in August for a period of 3 months, which has now been extended for 3 years by the High Court.
Over the summer, Sutton residents endured many of their local parks being blighted by traveller encampments on our parks, including Poulters Park, Fairlands Park, Seears Park, Cheam Park, Rose Hill Park and Beddington Park.
After repeated calls from Sutton Conservative councillors and Paul Scully MP, the Council finally agreed to seek a Borough-wide injunction against travellers setting up on public land, similar to that which Croydon sought. This was granted by the High Court for a period of 3 months.
The High Court has now agreed to extend this for three years and prevents unknown persons from:
- Occupying the land listed in the court order
- Depositing waste on the land listed in the court order
The injunction covers more than 500 of the Council's sites including parks, schools, housing sites, car parks, and cemeteries, and is in place until 7 November 2021.
Officers will now arrange for the court order to be displayed at each site effected as required by the court, and a copy of the order will be available shortly on the Council's web site.
Conservative Councillor for Nonsuch, Peter Geiringer, said: "We are delighted that the High Court has agreed to extend this injunction for a further three years.
"Over the summer, residents had to endure anti-social behaviour, fly-tipping and not being able to use their local parks as a result of traveller encampments.
"Hopefully this injunction and a tightening of the law to prevent these types of encampments, which has the support of our local MP Paul Scully, should mean we don't have another summer like the one we've just had.
"We will also be urging owners of private land to tighten security at their sites, such as at the old Evans Auto site, to prevent them moving in there.
"The Council should now be looking to recover the clean up costs of the mess left behind by traveller encampments."