THE issue of illegal travellers’ camps has become one of the most debated topics in the borough over recent years. Nick Statham reports.

AREAS including Farnworth, Sharples and Breightmet have all played reluctant hosts to groups who often pitch up on recreational areas such as playing fields and football pitches.

A costly clean-up operation usually follows once the travellers move on, as was the case recently at Leverhulme Park and St Stephen’s CE Primary School, in Kearsley.

But arguments over who should foot the bill — and to what extent — have spilled into the political arena recently.

When travellers moved on after pitching up in Leverhulme Park for three days during May, residents complained of a trail of waste left behind by the group.

A Freedom of Information request submitted by this newspaper revealed that the clean-up cost to the taxpayer ran to £878.27.

But volunteers queried why council taxpayers had been hit with a bill of that size, given they had collected much of the rubbish.

At this month’s full council meeting Breightmet ward councillor Adele Warren asked the authority’s environment chief, Cllr Nick Peel, how the council “justified” the bill.

She said: “Travellers didn’t leave until May 26 and volunteers removed all the rubbish on May 27.

“This was bagged by volunteers and collected by council employees on the same day as they were en-route to their usual bin-emptying collection on the park, with volunteers assisting loading the waste on to the wagon.”

But Cllr Peel hit back at the Conservatives for not being “in full possession of the facts”, adding that councillors should talk to officers rather than “bringing incorrect allegations” to the council chamber.
He said the collection costs – including the council vehicle and labour, gypsy liaison officer and site manager – came to £175, £87.55 and £51.50 respectively.

But the external costs came to £564.22 - £364.22 of which was the tipping, or landfill charge.

He added: “Quite worryingly this shows what I have long suspected, that Conservative councillors really struggle to get their heads around the fact that the cost associated with getting rid of waste or rubbish isn’t the collection cost, it’s the disposal cost.

“Disposal costs to the council are phenomenal. Collection costs for manpower and vehicles are well contained in our budgets.”

Cllr Peel added that the council had previously backed a motion urging the government to waive landfill charges for after travellers’ camp clean-ups.

But he said the council never heard back after sending a letter to Westminster.

And there was uproar in Kearsley last month when Bolton Council refused to clean up after travellers left the field behind St Stephen’s CE Primary School.

The authority insisted that the school must foot the bill as it does not pay into a council maintenance agreement.

The clean-up was ultimately carried out by volunteers, but the school’s cause was taken up by Cllr John Walsh in the council chamber.

He questioned whether it was “morally justifiable” for the council to refuse to financially assist schools following an illegal encampment and said chiefs had taken a “narrow view” of the matter.

He added: “You can’t secure playing fields totally and when this sort of thing happens the council has an obligation to support, as the leader of the council refers to it, The Bolton Family.”

But Cllr Peel again hit back, defending the council’s stance on the grounds stepping in would be unfair on other schools and the taxpayer.

He told Cllr Walsh: “You were one of the greatest supporters of schools being able to pick and choose their own providers.
“This is an ideological debate we have had,  but we are where we are with that.

“If a school decides not to enter into an service level agreement (SLA) with the council and instead chooses a private company how on earth is it morally justifiable for that private company not to fulfil its obligations? 

“How on earth is it morally justifiable for the council taxpayer to step in and do the work a company has been paid for in an SLA, that can never be right, surely?”

And he went further, accusing Cllr Walsh of wanting to “have his cake and eat it”.