So, the Travellers have up sticks and left Five Fields in Short Heath heading, we think, out towards Staffordshire. Hopefully things will begin to quieten down for us all now for a while at least.

Having said that we should not drop our guard as there are still no fewer than five other incursions across the borough. The nearest one to us is in Bentley.

They are also on Fairlawns and Brickyard Road, both in Aldridge; the former Rising Sun site in Brownhills and a private car park in Walsall.

So, where to now?

The first step is to make sure that all sites are cleaned and made safe. Much of this initial work has been done. Clean and Green have been out on all sites in our area affected. The Council’s contractor Tarmac, has dug out the fire pit on the New Invention Junior School’s Playing Field in Essington Rd. The Council has agreed to replace the fruit trees which had been damaged. The work will be carried out in the autumn and will be done in conjunction with the school in the autumn.

Discussions are ongoing about the best way to secure both the Essington Road Playing Fields and the Neighbourhood Park off Coppice Farm way against any future incursion attempt.

I was a member of a Scrutiny Working Group on Unauthorised Encampments which was set up back in August of last year. After intensive investigations the Working Group in its report to Scrutiny Committee early this year made 12 recommendations to tackle unauthorised Encampments. A copy of the final report from the Unauthorised Encampments Working Group which went to Cabinet on the 18 March can be viewed here : https://bit.ly/38LE6ty 

Cabinet received the report and requested that a full and comprehensive response be received in due course.

I have put in a formal request for reports to go to the next (virtual) meeting of the Scrutiny Overview Committee (Tuesday 28 July) on unauthorised encampments following the recent incursions in our area. I have also asked for vulnerable sites in the Willenhall area to be identified and included in the list of sites protected by Court Injunctions with particular reference to Essington Road, Coppice Farm Way, green space off Brereton Road/Littleton Road, Tennyson Road, Stroud Ave, and Pool Hayes Lane.