COUNCIL leaders have promised finding a transient site for travellers is an “absolute priority" to tackle the problem of illegal incursions in the borough.

At a meeting at Brierley Hill Civic Hall on Wednesday night - Dudley Council chiefs told residents from Withymoor, who are fed up of having travellers setting up impromptu camps on their doorstep, that the task of finding a site has already got underway and it will be ready for 2018.

The meeting was organised by Amblecote councillor Paul Bradley after a series of incursions in Turners Lane, Withymoor, which have cost at least £15,000 this year alone.

Fellow ward councillors Simon Tyler and Julie Baines also attended along with Dudley Council leader councillor Patrick Harley, the council's strategic director of place Alan Lunt and Dudley's top cop Superintendent Phil Dolby - to help outline the powers available to the authorities to tackle the issue which has cost the borough £50,000 this year after 11 incursions across Dudley.

Cllr Harley told members of the public that creating a transient site within the Dudley borough, which travellers can be ordered to move to immediately if they set up camp illegally, was an “absolute priority”.

He added: “Where they’ve had this in other parts of the country the number of incursions went down by 70 per cent. If we don’t act fast - as our neighbours in other authorities are doing it - Dudley would look very inviting.

"As a resident of Kingswinford I don’t want a repeat of the scenes we had last year.”

But he stressed: “It’s important we get the right site and that we consult with people who would be living nearby.”

Although he promised the plan is to find a site away from residential homes.

Mr Lunt said sites were already being looked at and he promised one would be ready for use by May next year.

He said in the meantime the council would continue to review security at parks and open spaces but he candidly told the audience paying £50,000 for clean ups after the travellers have departed had proven cheaper than employing preventative measures at all open spaces and parks across the borough would.

He said there are more than 3,000 possible sites which travellers could invade and he added: "That would cost in the region of £1million. To try and secure all the sites would be extremely expensive and it’s money the council hasn’t got."

Meanwhile - Supt Dolby urged people to lobby their MPs for a change in the law to help give the police and councils greater powers to tackle the problem.

Cllr Bradley said he knew the evening was "going to be a charged meeting given the deep feelings surrounding this contentious issue" but he added: "The hope from myself and fellow ward councillors was that locals would get a clear factual picture of the problems faced when dealing with illegal encampments and be given the chance to debate face to face with the authorities that deal with them when they arrive.

"The leader of the council stated a clear message to residents that a much-needed transient site would be in place by next May."