Traveller site near Atherstone to receive county council funding for improvements

Three traveller sites, including one at Alvecote near Atherstone, are to be revamped at a cost of nearly £700,000 after being included in the latest batch of Warwickshire County Council projects to be paid for by the capital investment fund.

New fencing and boundary work will be carried out at all of the sites while one will also have a new day room built.

Councillors at this week's cabinet meeting backed the work at the sites in Alvecote, Griff Hollows in Nuneaton and Pathlow on the outskirts of Stratford.

Cllr Dave Parsons (Lab, Polesworth) said: "I'm really pleased that this money is being put to gypsy and traveller camps. The site at Alvecote has a lot of problems and it is good that we are spending money to get these sites up to standard."

A report prepared for the meeting outlined what work would be carried out at the three sites wth £660,000 earmarked for the improvements.

It said: "The legal boundaries of the Alvecote site need to be reinstated to prevent unauthorised encampments and associated activity i.e. fly tipping which can significantly impact on the tenants and the surrounding community.

"Due to a shared access, work is required with several landowners to ensure an effective solution is designed and implemented."

The purpose-built day room facilities will be built at Griff Hollows where boundary fencing also needs to be reinstated while at Pathlow, the report explained that the legal boundaries needed to be put in place 'to mitigate against neighbouring landowners taking legal action against the council'.

Cllr Keith Kondakor (Green, Weddington) hoped that the extra funds would prompt improved behaviour by those living on the sites where the county council in the landlord.

He said: "Although we have a duty to fund some improvements I also feel we should have contracts with decent behaviour on sites. We are putting a lot of money in and there does need to be some element of it not being just free money – we need to expect them not to cause an environmental nuisance."

Cllr Heather Timms (Con, Earl Craven), the portfolio holder for environment, heritage and culture, said management procedures were in place at the sites.

She added: "They have not had a significant maintenance for quite a number of years and the static homes are coming to the end of their lives. We do get unauthorised encampments moving on to our sites and that has particularly been the problem at Alvecote. We do put in place strict measures around the behaviour."