DISGUSTING mounds of rubbish left behind by travellers have still not been cleared up.

The group moved into Evergreen Field in High Street, Wanstead, at the end of October and left behind heaps of trash.

Amongst the hoards of rubbish, there are black bags, planks of wood and metal frames. 

Although a skip has now appeared near the site, the rubbish has still been left to fester.

The land is owned by Dalco Developments Ltd, which could not be contacted for comments.

However, Conservative Councillor Susan Nolan, who represents Snaresbrook, blasted the way the travellers left the field. 

She said: “Travellers are fine but they leave everywhere in a dreadful state. It’s a shame what they do. 

“They don’t adhere to our rules. It’s still an eyesore and they made a horrible mess in a short space of time.”

She believes new powers are required to stop travellers from coming into the borough altogether.

She received numerous complaints when they moved in from residents calling for them to be evicted.

It eventually took five days after they first moved in for them to finally be served with a notice.

“People aren’t happy about what they do,” she added. “They’re humans like everyone else but don’t abide by the rules.”

She believes Redbridge is “easy pickings” for travellers because they know the council cannot evict them swiftly like neighbouring boroughs.
Havering and Barking and Dagenham Council both have injunctions stopping travellers from entering the borough.

Cllr Nolan said: “Sadly we don’t have powers like Barking and Dagenham and Havering Councils to get rid of travellers quickly and we need to get those in place.

“It’s not very nice. Personally speaking, if that was on our land I would ask for it to be removed immediately. It’s most unpleasant. They come into Redbridge because they know that’s the case. We can get eviction notices but it takes a long time.”

The councillor expressed surprise that travellers had not moved into the site before due to its openness.

A  spokeswoman for Redbridge Council said that fines were a possibility if rubbish is not cleared quickly enough.

She said: “This is private land and the landowner is responsible for the clear up. 

“We support landowners with advice when a fly tip is on private property, as we do not have responsibility is for clearing up rubbish which is dumped on non-council owned property. 

“If it is not cleared up after a certain period of time we can take action and charge the landowner.”