What an Extraordinary Meeting
With The Crier Reporter Attending
The Parish Council held an Extraordinary Meeting on Monday 1st August to consider the Travellers' recent occupation of the Recreation Ground. The invasion happened in the murky twilight hours about a week earlier when a local resident witnessed a white van, the shadowy outlines of four big blokes, and the clink and clang of metal as they cut through the barrier. Did this warrant a "Citizen's Arrest"? Was this not the perfect opportunity to test whether this option is an effective way of keeping law and order? Within seconds our witness made a lightning decision, rejected the idea, and went home to phone the police. In half an hour the caravans had all arrived.
Well, not just caravans as Steve Kent-Phillips gave a pretty extensive inventory of the contents of the field :- 5 caravans, 6 vehicles, 1 Quad Bike, 1 Motorbike, 1 horsebox, about 10 children, 2 greyhounds, 3 horses and a number of other items. Sounds colourful doesn't it! But what this invasion has done is to mess up the Burwell Tigers' plans for the development of additional football facilities for scores of youngsters in the area. Many people locally and nationally have spent hundreds of hours preparing what will be a tremendous boost for sport for the young only to have it threatened by a few.
All the great and the good were at the meeting in the Public Gallery (well, some) - Tom Robson, Geoffrey Woollard, Clive Riggs, Rosemary Riggs, Caroline Matheson, Linda Kirby, Alex Kirby, Francis Reeks, and me. Many readers will now regret they were not there at the barricades, to be named and to be remembered.
Brian Hicks, Traveller Liaison Officer from ECDC has worked with travellers for 12 years. He recommended that the PC should apply for Civil Procedure Part 55 which will be heard in the County Court with every possibility that the travellers will be off in an amazingly short time.
We will have to wait and see. The cost for solicitor and bailiff could be up to £1,500.
This was very sensible advice but before any final decision and formal proposal a number of heartfelt observations were made from the floor. One idea was that a huge trench should be dug so that the travellers couldn't get out until they surrendered. The use of ripe fertiliser was also mentioned. Such thoughts are quite natural, are not uncommon, but the PC decided there could only be a spiralling downside to any such actions.
Geoffrey Woollard was at his best and he harangued the Cambridge County Council (to be fair he often did this when he was a county councillor) and in a rising crescendo shouted that the CCC had been "TOO SOFT". It must be ten years or so since I last heard that reckless fearless emotional commitment to what he sees as the only truth. He wants the law changed so that travellers can be thrown off any land illegally camped upon. Would this do any good I wondered? What about the law banning the use of hand held mobile phones while driving? People still do it. Even the most law abiding people do it. Why are the police frightened to enforce this law. Why do normally decent citizens show such contempt for the law. Why should Travellers obey the law or be subjected to a new law when we, the good, often ignore the law. Why indeed?
To return to the problem with the CCC and CCC land such as the droves, Brian Hicks expanded on the difficulties. At one time ECDC would receive complaints about travellers, the traveller officer would evaluate, and if he decided the complaint was justified would ask the CCC to move the travellers on and this was done. No longer does this happen it seems. Whether this is because John Prescott has asked county councils to be gentler and more understanding or whether a few soft traveller sympathisers have got control of this area in CCC is not known. Many thought that John Prescott would benefit from having travellers pitching camp near his house rather than sending a long string of extensive guide lines on how to be kind to travellers. The chairman thought people ought to write and complain and apply pressure and Geoffrey suggested the recipient should to be the Chairperson of the CCC, Mrs Susan Normington.
Tom Robson introduced a breath of fresh air when he asked "Has anyone talked to these people to ask how long they are staying?" He thought this could be useful before taking expensive legal action. There was a silence, a rather stunned silence and then Brian Hicks (12 years of talking) and Alan Alderson (12 months of talking) answered as best they could and said that talking in the current circumstances this time was not the answer. They explained that the assurance "We'll be gone by next week, sir" means "a year if you're lucky". Tom claimed he'd had some experience of these people and had spent £10,000 on security fencing and another £15,000 on a security system, and he wondered how Burwell Tigers would be able to afford an effective security system to safeguard the ground. Steve said there was an FA grant of one and a half million. (Did I hear correctly?) It'll need all of that said Tom.
Those living near the recreation ground were obviously concerned and really wanted the whole field ploughed up so there would only be corn - no football, no kite-flying, no nothing. They also wanted a guarantee that travellers would never invade the field again. The PC could not guarantee this but Steve said he would ensure that Burwell Tigers strengthened their security plans. He would also want security fencing all along the side of the field facing the road and proposed taking out all the hedging so that everyone could see what goes on. Whether grubbing out established hedges is allowed or even desirable is another matter especially if replaced with six feet high wire mesh.
Extra points from the meeting. For the first time ever, and much to our astonishment, Mr Geoffrey Woollard and I agreed on a couple of points. Is the adverse effect of age? There are about 4,000 travellers and they have to live somewhere. The are good travellers and bad ones. There are strong rumours that farmer Billy Barton (whoever he is) is selling 5.5 acres to people that our PC and maybe the ECDC would prefer not to be owners. No-one knows for sure, but the worst is suspected, and Billy refuses to consider selling to others even when approached. Are our real problems about to begin?