Rise in unauthorised traveller sites in Birmingham prompts council row

The closure of Birmingham City Council’s official traveller site has sparked a row amid a rise in unauthorised encampments, with one councillor branding the situation a “disgrace”.

The council has one developed transit site – an authorised base where members of the travelling community can be directed to. But the site in Proctor Street in Aston was closed in January last year to undergo substantial repairs following “significant damage and vandalism”, a council report said.

It is set to reopen “within the month” but the report said repairs had taken longer than anticipated due to the level of damage, “unforeseen complications” with the electrical supply, lengthy contractor response times and spend control processes.

“Repairs are now nearing completion with mobilisation works now being instructed,” the report added. “The site is due to reopen within the month.” The report also showed the number of unauthorised encampments during 2023/2024 was the highest post-pandemic.

During a licensing and public protection committee on Wednesday, March 13, councillors angrily questioned why Proctor Street had not been reopened yet to help tackle the issue.

“We hear excuse after excuse after excuse as to why Proctor Street is not up and running,” Labour councillor Sam Forsyth said. "For the second city not to have a designated, official travellers site is a disgrace – when is Proctor Street actually going to be open? This has dragged on – I’m certainly fed-up of it and residents are fed-up of it.”

She said she was frustrated that “some of the most discriminated people” were being affected by the situation too. “Meanwhile we all get complaints from residents when travellers go onto parks and we have nowhere to redirect people to – and we are dealing with people at the end of the day,” she said.

Green Party councillor Julien Pritchard said the Proctor Street saga had been going for “so long” and added: “It’s a joke and not a funny one.” The council report said a revised Gypsy and Traveller Accommodation Assessment was being prepared, which suggested an option to provide temporary and ‘informal’ negotiated stopping sites.

It said: “These would be sites which are only temporarily available due, for example, to the fact they are awaiting development or currently disused and could be utilised to direct unauthorised encampments for a short, negotiated period. This would enable such encampments to be directed immediately away from sites more widely used by or having a greater impact on local residents such as parks.”

Martin Dando, from the planning policy team, told the committee meeting a more flexible approach, rather than a second ‘fixed’ site, would be cheaper, more reactive and could be implemented in a short space of time.

He argued a second “designated and fixed” site would have to wait for the Local Plan as well as deal with planning permissions and legal issues. “Proctor Street has proved to be very expensive and this provides a flexible approach which would help us in the short-term,” he said.

Asked what steps were being taken to ensure Proctor Street was not forced to shut again, Carla Bates, a senior service manager from the central north housing team, said: “A business case has been submitted for general fund spending to be able to recruit people that can actually manage the site.

“We’re just waiting for a decision on that – obviously if it’s approved, then we need to go through a recruitment process to get people in place to manage that site in the hope we wouldn’t be back in this situation in three months time.”