A second travellers’ camp in Livingston has been moved on after visits from council officers.
The makeshift day-long encampment at Eliburn’s football pitches left behind enough rubbish to fill 18 bags when local members of the West Lothian Litter Pickers moved in to clean up.
And a local councillor has called on national agencies and the police to work with the council and traveller community to cut down on fly-tipping – and urged a more robust use of enforcement powers.
The latest incident came less than a week after another unauthorised encampment left behind around 50 tons of rubbish at Craigswood, including building and garden waste, gas bottles and human waste.
It will cost the council thousands of pounds to clear up.
After the latest unauthorised encampment, a council spokesperson told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “Safer Neighbourhood Team officers visited the site yesterday [Tuesday] on being notified of the unauthorised encampment.
“A notice to quit was served, which expires today. If the travellers fail to remove from the site, Legal Services will be instructed to pursue court action for eviction.”
By early evening reports on social media suggested the vehicles, including caravans and flat-bed trucks, had moved on leaving behind rubbish including food, clothing, children’s toys and human waste.
West Lothian Litter Pickers later posted that members had collected 18 bags of litter from the site for the council to uplift.
Councillor Andrew Miller told the LDRS: “As a local councillor it is my priority to see this well used public park returned to public access. I am concerned by the quantity of waste left behind at recent traveller encampments and will be pushing the council to do all they can to resolve the situation and carry out any reinstatement as quickly as possible.
“Beyond this however, the Council, along with the police, SEPA, and the Traveller community need to address the wider issues. Simply moving them along from site to site, incurring legal costs, and spending a small fortune in clean-up is not sustainable.”
“We urgently need to review the need for designated sites along with any measures that could be put in place to lessen the impact of encampments.”
Councillor Miller had earlier told the LDRS that messages had appeared on local social media offering uplifts of garden and household rubbish.
He later added: “We need a more robust use of enforcement powers. Fly-tipping is illegal, transport of waste without the appropriate license is illegal, and yet both of these would appear to be very visibly happening with no apparent action from the authorities.”
The pitches at Eliburn are used by Livingston FC Community Club for regular fixtures and training and the caravans are understood to have arrived over the weekend.
The council said after the Craigswood incident: “We would again issue a plea to all householders to ensure that if they are getting work done in and around their homes to ensure that the company taking your waste away for disposal is licensed to dispose of it (as is the legal requirement).
“This applies to a company carrying out work for you or paying a company to simply remove the waste after work has been carried out.”
By Stuart Sommerville, Local Democracy Reporter
