Anti-social traveller plan halted

By Dominic Casciani
BBC News community affairs

Gypsies say they fear a "campaign of hatred" against them

Plans to use anti-social behaviour powers against travellers have collapsed after police admitted they were probably unlawful.

The idea to bring unauthorised encampments under anti-social behaviour laws had been watched by councils nationwide.

Police officers created five pilot "no-go" areas to keep out travellers looking for stopping places.

West Yorkshire Police has halted the orders after a legal action threat.

Wakefield Council urged West Yorkshire Police to use the Anti-Social Behaviour Act to stop travellers from using five local sites.

The sites included land near a school, open playing fields and a cricket pitch, none of which is currently being occupied.

The council asked police to use dispersal powers under the act to create no-go zones around each site to prevent travelling communities arriving.

A breach of a dispersal notice under the act can lead to a three-month jail sentence.

Legal action threatened

However, supporters of travellers' rights said the move did nothing to help communities find stopping places and ignored a recent order from Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott that councils must do more to solve the lack of sites.

Scrapped no-go areas 1. Spring Mills Playing Fields, Ossett 2. Gawthorpe Recreation Ground, Gawthorpe 3. Kettlethorpe High School Playing Fields, Kettlethorpe 4. Normanton Cricket Club, Normanton 5. Land behind Sandal Magna School, Agbrigg

Chris Johnson of the Community Law Partnership, which represented an anonymous Irish Traveller who had planned to bring an action, said the zones had no basis in law.

He said they were potentially discriminatory because they were targeting just one group of people.

"Most people think these laws are designed to deal with anti-social behaviour, such as intimidation and harassment by yobs," said Mr Johnson.

"We argued that the law cannot be used in this way against travellers who may have nowhere to go. What was my client supposed to do? Disappear into thin air?"

If a traveller had nowhere to stop other than one of the no-go sites, it would be unreasonable for the police to consider them an anti-social nuisance, he argued.

"This is a very important result since we know that a number of Local Authorities were looking at the possibility of using the Anti-Social Behaviour Act."

In a statement, West Yorkshire Police conceded said they had withdrawn the dispersal orders despite opposition from the council because they would have proved unworkable.

"We have to weigh the value of using public money to fight a test case in the courts which, on the advice of our own legal experts we would almost certainly lose," the statement said.

Council urges rethink

Wakefield Council runs a large official traveller site with 250 pitches, which is full, and an associated transit site for five caravans at a time. It said it was disappointed and said senior officers should have been prepared to fight it in the courts.

"The innovative use of anti-social behaviour legislation was approved by the police superintendent in consultation with the council with a view to trying something different," said Peter Box, the council leader.

"We fully accept it is only a minority of the travelling community who commit anti-social behaviour.

"But those who do show a disregard for others who should be treated with the same respect travellers seek for their own community."