Illegal encampment – Schneider Rd playing fields

A group of Travellers recently forced entry onto Schneider Rd playing fields and set up an illegal encampment. Council Officers and colleagues from other statutory agencies were in regular contact…

A group of Travellers recently forced entry onto Schneider Rd playing fields and set up an illegal encampment. Council Officers and colleagues from other statutory agencies were in regular contact with the Travellers, at the same time as legal measures to remove the group were being considered. Following negotiation with Council Officers, the group vacated the site voluntarily. The site has been cleaned up at no small expense. For the avoidance of doubt, the comments made by a Council Officer reported in the North West Evening Mail on the 16 th of August were always intended to be limited to the specific group of people who had unlawfully taken up occupation on the Schneider Rd playing fields and who demonstrably left the playing fields in such a terrible state after they moved on. These comments were not intended to make any criticism of the wider traveller community or to insinuate that all members of the traveller community behave in the way in which the small number of individuals at Schneider Rd playing fields behaved. The Council’s issue was with the poor behaviour of a very specific group of individuals and not of a section of society more widely. The same concerns would have been expressed had everyone else done what this group did, irrespective of racial, ethnic or any other considerations. The Council is proud of its record on combating discrimination and opposes all forms of discrimination and hate crime both within the Borough and outside the Borough.