Dozens of travellers’ vans have pitched up on Hove Lawns despite the site having special protection in law from “unauthorised encampments”.
The arrival of so many vehicles comes shortly after a member of Brighton and Hove City Council said recently that there were no such camps locally.
The credit was given to the introduction of “public space protection orders”.
These are supposed to protect sensitive sites for the public, such as the cemetery in Woodingdean which was also recently the site of a travellers’ camp.
The latest incursion – on Hove seafront -happened today (Saturday 31 August), starting at lunchtime.
There were reports of about 50 cars, vans and caravans.
Neighbours complained that the police and council had not communicated any intention of upholding the law and protecting public access.
Meanwhile there have also been complaints about traders blocking pavements in Sydney Street, Brighton, while council officials turn a blind eye.
The issue particularly affects wheelchair users, people with mobility problems and impaired vision.
Much has been made at council committee meetings about the rights if protected minorities.
A former Brighton and Hove City Council official joined an exchange on social media highlighting the rules, solutions and longstanding nature of minimal enforcement.
others have been critical of the response to the screening off of part of Brighton Square in The Lanes by a new restaurant called Coppa Club.
Yet there are signs all-over the Lawns saying ‘No Ball Games’ and the Police have actually stopped me and some friends (all three of us) from kicking a football around. Fifty caravans of people using polluting diesal generators and dumping mountains of rubbish on the Lawns? Apparantly not a problem…
diesal?
I have just walked past this area on my way back from work. These people have dumped tons of rubbish on Hove Lawns, are using polluting diesal generators and their kids are tearing-up the grass on quad bikes.
Why aren’t Caroline Lucas and Brighton Green Party on-site, DEMANDING that these people stop this environmental damage and leave???
Why is not ‘Clueless Lucas’ at Hove Lawns, demanding that these people stop their environmental damage? I imagine that Brighton Greens are in a state of cognitive dissonance; want to condemn them for the environmental damage that they are causing, but can’t condemn them because they are trav*llers…
Bring Greta Thunder-Gusset, greatest teenage environmentalist ever over here to have a very stern talking to these people…
I looked up the relevant legislation -or rather the Government’s allegedly simple guide to it, in the interests of my own sanity – and it is all extremely woolly. Frankly, I had no clear idea of whether it was the council, the police or Joe Bloggs (local resident) who could get these people off the Lawns pronto. However, I have to say that, if they are still there – are they? – then the legislation is clearly not fit for purpose, whatever the purpose was, which is very vague. Perhaps if Boris has a moment in the midst of all else, he could order whichever department it is to produce a proper piece of law that allows the police to move these people on the minute they set caravans on protected spaces. After all, if I had a caravan and towed it to Hove Lawns for the afternoon, the police would be down on me like a ton of bricks, as with Joe above and his fairly innocent footballing.
Without wishing to be politically incorrect, what is it about ‘travellers’, who do not pay any local dues to any council to compensate for the damage and clear-up costs they generate, that is deserving of a hands-off approach by the authorities?
I live directly opposite these vehicles , and being honest i have seen worse on the lawns .
Its not taking a loaf of bread from my table ,so live and let live
You won’t be saying live and let live when they start posting their dirty, filthy, stinking soiled underpants through your letterbox…
Hove Lawns is, er, in Hove. Which isn’t in Brighton (Pavilion or Kemptown). That’s why Caroline Lucas isn’t there. There’s a long standing convention that MPs don’t get involved in local issues in other MP’s constituencies.
Although there’s also a long standing convention that we allow MPs to make decisions on Parliament but Dominic Cummings has ignored that. Perhaps we should ask him to sort out problems with Travellers, but I suspect his answer would be unacceptable to all decent people.
“while council officials turn a blind eye.” Blind eye turning by the council is endemic and one of the major factors that contributes to reduced quality of life of its residents. Raises all sorts of questions about corruption… that remain unanswered.
Overcrowding from businesses in the laines needs its own article to be fair – Sydney Street at the weekend with its roadworks and cafe tables was single file in areas, one direction at a time, causing pedestrian queues on a closed road. Same issue with cafes on Gardner Street, road is closed at the weekend but cafes are using both the pavements and road for tables without any kind of organisation causing issues with wheelchairs, buggies and pedestrians having to weave through tables, planters etc. Fatto Mano too has caused a bottleneck on Kensington gardens causing queueing and issues for wheelchairs – just a couple of tables/a metre less here should be enforced.