Approved Judgment
December 2024 with a published final report setting out the projected need for caravan pitches to 2040/41. 15. As to permanent provision, he says that the council has its own site at Roch Vale which provides 27 plots and seven council provided chalets. It also leased a site at Heritage Park which was owned and managed by a Traveller family, but that site has recently been closed by the Traveller family. In December 2024, the Greater Manchester Gypsy and Traveller Accommodation Assessment was updated to take into account the new expanded definition of Gypsies and Travellers. During the current year, two further sites have been identified and are being developed. They will provide for six additional permanent pitches which it is anticipated will meet the increased need for pitches. 16. Mr Morris also gives evidence about unauthorised encampments in Rochdale since the grant of the injunction by Butcher J on 11 June 2024. He says these encampments have been almost exclusively on inappropriate and unsafe locations including road verges, industrial and business premises, and car parks serving sports centres and shopping centres. He says that in each case the council has adopted an approach of engagement and negotiation with the occupiers of the sites. That policy has been effective in that, once made aware of the Injunction, Travellers have generally left the relevant site within a few hours or, at most, by the following morning. He says that that approach of engagement and tolerance has meant that it has not been necessary to take legal action to enforce the orders. 17. Mr Morris explains that Rochdale has had contact with neighbouring authorities across Greater Manchester, with whom Rochdale work closely on management of Traveller sites and unlawful encampments, and none of them have raised any issue with the council regarding the displacement of encampments into other areas. 18. Anthony Johns is Rochdale council’s service manager for environmental action and enforcement and, amongst other functions, manages officers responsible for attending unauthorised encampments and the enforcement of the injunction. He says in his statement that the council's approach, of taking a “constructive and educational approach by advising those who are forming the encampment about the injunction” has proved effective. He says that the power of arrest is a last resort and has never, in fact, been used. But, he says, it is that power which makes the injunction “so effective”. 19. He says that injunctive relief was first sought in response to the high number of unauthorised encampments occurring between January 2015 and September 2017 “many of which caused significant harm to the Borough and had or were associated with... noise nuisances, anti-social behaviour, threats of violence...and fly tipping.” Encampment numbers peaked at 69 in 2017, and have since dropped to single figures. 20. Mr. Johns explains that the Injunction sought by the council is not Borough-wide, but is limited to the 334 sites which together cover 15.3 square kilometres. Since the Borough covers an area of 158 square kilometres that is about 9.7% of the total. 21. He explains that sites were identified which required the protection of an injunction. They were chosen because they were sites where encampments would be especially harmful and where either there had been previous encampments or they were of the same nature as sites that were frequently targeted. “Typically those sites include schools, recreational areas and green spaces, business parks and industrial areas”.
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