Conservatives vow to get tough on illegal sites occupied by travellers
A Tory government would introduce measures to make it more difficult for travellers and gypsies to set up illegal sites, the shadow minister for local government and planning said this week.
Bob Neill said the party wanted to tackle widespread public concern about the exploitation of the planning system. Its new policy blueprint will address “the small minority of travellers who occupy illegal or unauthorised sites”, he said.
The proposals include creating a new criminal offence of intentional trespass, with trespassers who refuse to move after being asked to do so by a uniformed police officer facing arrest. “This will allow both squatters and travellers occupying property without permission from the landowner to be removed quickly,” the party said.
Other proposals involve:
- Curtailing the ability to apply for retrospective planning permission, to stop people laying down concrete at the weekend or on a bank holiday and then applying for planning permission
- Scrapping planning rules that compel councils to build traveller camps on the Green Belt and compulsory purchase land to find sites
- Giving local authorities with authorised sites tougher ‘stop notice’ enforcement powers, and supporting central funding to for councils to build authorised sites
- Replacing the Human Rights Act with a British Bill of Rights to “prevent lawyers sidestepping the planning system and demanding special treatment”.
Neill said: “The British public want to see fair play for all, rather than special treatment being given to some. Labour’s changes have undermined community cohesion by creating a legitimate sense of injustice in the planning system.”
