A CONSULTATION has been launched over council plans to create a temporary travellers’ site in the Dudley borough to help put an end to unauthorised encampments.

Dudley Council is proposing a transient site be set up for a period of three years, after a series of summertime incursions over the last two years, to enable the authority and police to quickly evict travellers who set up illegal camps on parks or open spaces in the borough.

The plan was debated at last night’s Place scrutiny meeting at The Council House where committee members were told it would cost £280,000 to set up a site.

Alan Lunt, strategic director of the council’s Place directorate, told members dealing with unauthorised encampments was costing the authority around £150,000 each year and he said: “We can either spend £450,000 chasing travellers around the borough and dealing with the aftermath or provide a temporary transit site and significantly reduce and in many cases prevent unauthorised incursions occurring in the first place.”

Having a transit site in the borough would give authorities the power to direct travellers to the designated short stay facility where they would be required to pay a deposit in the region of £250 and £80 a week, payable up front, to cover the costs of power, water and waste disposal.

Mr Lunt said it’s unlikely the site would be used as in other local authority areas that have created transit sites usage has been minimal.

A council-owned site on Budden Road in Coseley, has been assessed as the preferred site for a temporary facility but residents living near the favoured location expressed opposition to the plan - with their claims the site is contaminated and unsuitable supported by councillors Melvyn Mottram and Sue Ridney.

The site is one of ten identified as able to potentially accommodate the temporary facility but Labour colleagues on the scrutiny committee Cllr Alan Finch and Zafir Islam called for further suggestions to be found and scored before a decision is made.

Specifically - council owned land on Hall Street, Dudley, and Birmingham Street, Stourbridge, were suggested as preferable sites for a temporary site until a permanent place can be found.

The committee, chaired by Conservative councillor Matt Rogers, agreed to recommend the two additional sites highlighted be scored against the same criteria as the other ten shortlisted sites before the plan is referred back to cabinet. In the meantime members of the public are being asked to have their say in a consultation which has just launched.

The online survey, which will run until January 19 2018, asks residents if they have been affected by incursions, if they think the council has done enough to prevent them, if they support the council’s plans to set up the site and what they think about the authority’s preference for the temporary site at Budden Road.

Councillor Patrick Harley, leader of Dudley Council, said: “In recent years, unauthorised camps have caused distress and anger among residents, as well as costing taxpayers thousands of pounds to clean up afterwards and for us to protect other sites.

“At the moment our only response is a through a legal process which takes up to a week to evict a group of travellers, only for them to move on to another site nearby.

“Having a transit site will stop this from happening. Evidence from other local authorities indicates transit sites are used very infrequently and the most significant effect it has is preventing travellers establishing encampments in the area in the first place.

“While I understand the identification of a preferred site may cause concern among residents, I firmly believe that having a transit site in the borough will benefit us all. But I want to hear residents’ views too."

Council bosses want to get the site up and running by next May in time for the summer when travellers typically visit the borough and Mr Lunt warned the committee: “Sandwell has a transit site and Walsall are considering a transit site so if Walsall and Sandwell have sites and we don’t we could be more heavily affected than we currently are and the problem could be tripled - that’s a risk if we don’t have a transit site."

People can take part in the consultation by clicking here.