Police persuade Travellers to move on from illegal camp at side of Milton Keynes grid road

Police have successfully persuaded a group of Travellers to move on from an illegal camp alongside a busy city grid road.

The encampment arrived late last night (Sunday) but by mid afternoon today the Travellers had left and were last seeing heading up the motorway.

A police spokesman posted on TVP’s social media: “Sergeants Duckett and Hurd from Incident, Crime & Response Team 1 in Milton Keynes attended the unauthorised encampment located on the H3 by Bancroft this afternoon. The encampment appeared yesterday evening but has now been moved on.“Thank you to everyone who reported this to us and we hope local residents can now feel reassured.”

Members of the public praised the swift action but were quick to ask why encampments in other parts of MK took so much longer to move.

There has been a particular problem this summer with Travellers persistently setting up camp in the Tattenhoe and Westcroft area. Within minutes of being moved on, they’ve set up another camp in another area close by, each time leaving rubbish behind, say residents.

They even pitched up on one occasion in Howe Park Wood, one of the most protected sites in MK.

The problems have prompted a public meeting between residents, police and the council to be held in Tattenhoe.

Ward councillor James Lancaster has urged residents to report any criminal activity or anti-social behaviour directly to police via 101.

He said: “The council has improved how problem encampments are dealt with and has a good working relationship with Thames Valley Police on the issue. However, residents do still have several concerns about what is happening.”

Council leader Pete Marland said: “The council takes the issue of unauthorised encampments very seriously...I want to reassure residents that we can, and do, use all the powers available to us as a local authority, and with our partners at TVP, to deal with encampments as quickly as possible.”

Meanwhile, police officers have explained their swift success with the Bancroft group of travellers today.

The spokesman said: “There is legislation and a process we need to follow when moving on unauthorised encampments. This can take a little bit of time. Luckily on this occasion our powers of persuasion were enough to achieve this.”