Forcing Councils to Fulfil Their Responsibilities

3.38.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 12th Jul 2006

Problems caused by travellers' use of unauthorized sites such as the Thatcham Discovery Centre was one of the main issues discussed at the Thatcham Area Forum on Tuesday evening.

Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Spokesperson, David Rendel, pointed out that there used to be a law (now repealed) which made every Council responsible for providing sufficient authorized sites for travellers. If every Council had fulfilled its responsibility, there would not now be any need for travellers to use unauthorized sites. West Berkshire (which has two authorized sites) is one of the councils which did meet its responsibilities.

" I asked the spokespeople for the police and for the Council whether they would like to see the law reinstated", said Mr Rendel after the meeting. "Both agreed that it would help remove the problems caused by travellers on unauthorized sites, if other Councils were forced to provide sufficient authorized sites as West Berkshire has done. It is a great pity this excellent piece of legislation was ever repealed."