Michael Fallon

Sevenoaks MP Michael Fallon has written to parish councils and local campaigners with details of new Conservative plans to tighten the law on travellers.

The proposals include a new criminal offence of “intentional trespass”.  This will enable police to arrest travellers moving onto somebody else’s property and avoid landowners having to take civil action to remove travellers from their land.  (In Ireland this approach has dramatically reduced illegal encampments.)

A Conservative Government would also tighten the law to prevent travellers beginning to construct pitches over a weekend or a Bank Holiday and retrospectively applying for planning permission.  Councils like Sevenoaks will no longer be forced to provide additional pitches on Green Belt land.  The European Human Rights Act will be replaced by a British Bill of Rights under which travellers will no longer be allowed to claim special minority status.

Michael Fallon said:  “Villages throughout the Sevenoaks area have been plagued with illegal encampments on other people’s land and unauthorised caravan pitches in the Green Belt.  Many parish councils have complained to me that the law is too weak to protect them, and that travellers are getting special treatment in the planning process.  Provided we have a Conservative Government, these changes will make travellers subject to the same rules as everybody else.”