Record number of Travellers came to Warwickshire in 2011

A RECORD number of Travellers came to Warwickshire last year – but the service that looks after sites in the area still turned a healthy profit.

Figures released by Warwickshire County Council show that so far this financial year Gypsy and Traveller services at the council has brought in £81,141.

That’s despite a record-breaking 700 families coming to the county and staying on a variety of legal and illegal sites set up to cope with demand.

The council service has had to cope with the huge influx as well as managing two of their own sites in Alvecote, North Warwickshire and Bermuda, in Nuneaton.

They also look after Coventry City Council’s Siskin Drive site, in Toll Bar End.

In the last two years the authority has made small losses on looking after the sites – but in that period they undertook extensive refurbishment programmes on the sites.

“This year we have had 700 travelling families coming through Warwickshire,” Rob Leahy, Gypsy and Traveller team leader with Warwickshire County Council.
“
It’s a big increase and is a great burden on us and we have to deal with that as well as look after three sites.”

The influx has led to illegal sites popping up all over the county before most are swiftly dispersed.

Others have led to long-standing planning disputes, with one temporary site in Barnacle being established in 2003.