Council contractors in Gosport, Hampshire, employed tactics including parking trucks in a line and using a tractor to stir up dust in an effort to prevent travelers from establishing a camp on a local field.
The actions took place at Grange Lane Fields, adjacent to a school. Photographs depicted five council trucks positioned to block the entrance to the field, with a tractor cutting the dry grass and creating a large dust cloud. Despite these efforts, local residents reported that more travelers arrived after council staff departed for the day.
Local councilors have expressed frustration over the ease of access to open spaces, with one post on Facebook by the Gosport Reform Party stating that measures to protect such areas had been requested since September of the previous year but were still pending action. Hampshire and Isle of Wight Police confirmed they were aware of the unauthorized encampment and were liaising with the landowner, Gosport Borough Council.
Separately, in nearby Fareham, a field previously occupied by travelers was left with significant amounts of rubbish, including tents, a pram, gas canisters, and a motorcycle. A local councilor noted that the cost of clearing the debris would fall on the council.
These events coincide with criticism of recent changes to national planning policy, specifically regarding traveler sites. Concerns have been raised that the revisions, attributed to Angela Rayner's department, may have weakened standards. Provisions that addressed 'long-distance travelling' and 'potential environmental damage' from encampments were reportedly removed from the final version of the National Planning Policy Framework. References to minimizing adverse environmental impacts on travelers and ensuring sites were not isolated from the community were also omitted. A new suggestion that locations not well-related to existing settlements could be appropriate was included.
Conservative politicians have criticized these changes, with Shadow Housing Secretary Sir James Cleverly stating that the revisions make it easier for travelers to establish unauthorized camps and potentially receive retrospective planning approval. The Conservative party has vowed to crack down on illegal traveler sites if they return to power, proposing bans on indefinite stays and an end to retrospective planning approvals.