WW1-style trenches won’t stop travellers from living on our doorsteps, enraged locals tell council

Local authorities in the past would try to use legal routes to their advantage, but the travellers simply returned and popped up in another area of town.

Birmingham City Council tried to combat the issue once and for all by digging trenches around some of the city’s most pertinent parks to prevent the illegal groups from settling there.

Their efforts focused on Daisy Farm Park in Highter’s Heath and Manningford Park in Druids Heath over the past several weeks.

Over in Chinn Brook, characterised by its quaint, picturesque greenery, has had a trench installed around the area, accompanied by concrete blocks put up behind the gates.

Still, locals remain unimpressed.

Members of Friends of Chinn Brook, a volunteer group which is burdened with clearing up after the trash-tossing travellers, have criticised the council’s inability to handle the mounting issue.

Angela Glen, 45, said: “It’s been constant for the last four years with travellers arriving up to seven times a year.

“It is a nightmare. This summer I had to warn people not to come here with children because of the amount of human waste had made it environmentally unsafe.

“They bag up rubbish and then chuck it deep into the bushes so their dogs don’t rip it open. The Council weren’t going after that waste so it was left to the Friends of the Park groups.”

Ms Glen admitted she felt that the authority had been “taking the mick” so the rubbish clearing group elected to stop their valiant efforts.

Still, she ceded that the council’s latest move revealed that they were at least “listening to the locals and trying to make a difference”.

Meanwhile, a former policeman ripped into the “eyesore” trenches, adding: “It might stop them coming in but knowing the travellers they will find a way.”

He further warned the investment could have been “for nothing”. Still, like Ms Glen, he hoped the trenches would act as a preventative measure.

With his home backing onto the green, he said he worries about leaving his home empty.

Even when walking his dog, the ex-officer said he was concerned over the travellers’ dogs and horses, which are kept off-lead.

A spokesman for Birmingham City Council said: “Increased encampment pressures, together with repeated damage to existing boundary infrastructure and access controls, have required the council to consider a wider range of preventative measures.

“The use of ditches, bunds and other landscape interventions forms part of a broader toolkit of options and is implemented only where considered necessary, appropriate and site-specific.

“The council remains committed to safeguarding public open spaces for the benefit of all users and will continue to review and monitor measures at individual locations.”