View report page

35
It should be emphasised also that the large number of caravans
dealt with does not give a true indication of the number of separately
occupied caravans coming into the district as, with a few exceptions,
the majority belong to about twenty gypsies, who, after having
been removed from one site in the district to a site outside the
district, return after a lapse of a few days or weeks to another
site in the Northolt area so that, in fact, we are constantly dealing
with the same gypsies. We have secured Court Orders against
fifteen of them prohibiting their using land in the Borough as
camping sites for the parking of caravans and the Council are
enabled thereby to take action against them at any time for contravening
a Court Order should they again come into this District.
It should be pointed out, however, that by the time application has
been made to the Court for a summons and the summons has been
issued, several days have elapsed and in many cases the caravans
have left the district before the Court hearing. In other cases
also, they have left the site before the summons can be served,
so that no penalty can be inflicted by the Court.
The only permanent remedy for this nuisance appears to be
that of providing fences or barricades to prevent the access of
gypsy caravans on to waste land. This policy has been followed
in respect of certain sites in North Hanwell and Greenford with
the consequence that very little nuisance from gypsies has been
experienced in these areas for some time.
Semi-Permanent Caravans.
In 1949, as a result of the increasing number of movable
dwellings of a semi-permanent type in the Northolt area, the Council
took action under Section 345 of the Middlesex County Council
Act, 1944, against the tenants of seventeen of these dwellings
who were refused permission by the Council to use land in the
Borough as sites for their movable dwellings. Seven tenants
appealed against this decision to the Ealing Magistrates Court.
Two of the appeals were withdrawn before the hearing and in the
remaining five cases the appeals were dismissed by the Magistrates.
The tenants were given until the 31st March, 1950, in which to
find other accommodation. Early in 1950 three other caravan
dwellers were refused permission by the Council to use land in
the Borough as sites for their movable dwellings, making a total
of twenty semi-permanent caravans.
Arising from the Council's action and the dismissal of the
appeals by the Court, twelve occupants of caravans voluntarily
left the district; two were re-housed by the Council (one after
being fined 20/- at the local Magistrates Court) ; two left after
having been fined at the local Magistrates Court (20/- in one case
and 40/- in the other) ; one served one day's imprisonment for nonpayment
of a fine of 10/-, and his caravan has since been made the
subject of a Demolition Order by the Council.