Swift response to illegal camping in Crakenedge Lane car park (Kirklees Liberal Democrats)

Kirklees Liberal Democrats <info@kirkleeslibdems.org.uk>

Swift response to illegal camping in Crakenedge Lane car park

December 23, 2005 10:33 AM

"The presence of illegal campers in the Crakenedge Lane car park was first reported to the Council on Sunday 28th November at around 10pm. The Estates Department visited the site and sent the details to the Legal Services department to instigate immediate action." says Councillor Dennis Hullock.

"Under the normal Civil Procedure Rules the earliest the matter would ordinarily have been heard on Friday 2nd December but, in view of the urgency of the situation, on Tuesday morning the papers were lodged and an application made to Dewsbury County Court for the time for service to be shortened. The Court granted an order to abridge service to 4:00pm on Tuesday 29th and the hearing was listed for 11:00 am Wednesday 30th.

Councillor Hullock says "Notice of the hearing was posted on the land on Tuesday 29th. This caused some of the travellers to move off immediately. The Council responded in double-quick time to protect this site. The Council has taken all the necessary legal action to ensure that the car park is available for its proper purpose and shoppers were not inconvenienced at this much used car park. "

"As for the ridiculous idea of Councillor Martin Bolt to give the campers parking tickets that would simply have made life much more difficult and costly. Anyone who uses a car park simply for parking a car is a licensee, subject to the terms of the licence (i.e. the permission to park a car there) and of the order which permits people to park there. Anyone who brings caravans and sets up a temporary home on the car park is a trespasser. If they bring vehicles too, that is merely an incidental and additional form of trespass. If we started issuing parking tickets it could be regarded as implying that we were acknowledging that the travellers had a licence to park there and could create difficulties over costly action to remove them as trespassers. Councillor Bolts suggestion would have cost the Council a fortune."