Glenrothes firm views hefty bill to clean up after travellers as 'tax'
Staff at a Glenrothes firm have demanded action after a group of travellers camped on their property and left the company facing a hefty clean-up bill and costs to construct defences around their land.
Some of the rubbish left behind at Southfield in 2010.
- By Craig Smith
- Published in the Courier : 17.05.11
- Published online : 17.05.11 @ 04.59pm
Spectrogon UK Ltd, which is based in Southfield Industrial Estate, reckons the mess left behind in recent weeks will cost many thousands of pounds to rectify and believes it is time the imbalance between the rights of travellers and the rights of site owners is finally addressed.
If left untouched, it has even suggested the problem could seriously harm Fife's economy as businesses aim to avoid the unnecessary costs incurred because of travellers' unauthorised actions.
Two separate bands of caravans have camped on the company's site in Whitworth Road in the past three weeks and, with the summer only just beginning, workers fear the situation will only get worse between now and September.
One worker at the firm, which manufactures and develops optical filters and other components, firmly believes "enough is enough" and wants Fife Council and the police to be given more powers to stop travellers from developing unauthorised stopover sites on private land.
The manager, who did not wish to be named, said, "We are reasonable people and we realise that a balance has to be found whereby law-abiding travellers can be accommodated by society, but it is the public sector's place to take responsibility and to provide for this.
'Poor public policy'
"It is not our company's responsibility to pay for appallingly poor public policy. The Scottish Government and the local council give the travellers rights and, effectively, immunity from prosecution for behavior that would get any other member of society arrested.
"However, the same public bodies then fail to provide adequate sites for the travellers.
"Even worse is that that the local council, and other public bodies like Scottish Enterprise, use public money to protect their own land with gates, fences and ditches. It is this combination of policy and action which is increasingly forcing the travellers on to private land.
"The police and the local councils then wash their hands of the problem on private land and tell us that we need to spend large sums of money on civil legal actions to evict the travellers and then on building defences to protect our own our land.
"It is effectively a tax on local businesses."
The manager went on to confirm the whole process of going to the lawyers, getting to court, removing the travellers and cleaning up the mess is "tiring, frustrating and very expensive".
He continued, "I am sure that a majority of the travellers as a whole are law-abiding people, but there is no doubt that a significant proportion that we have encountered are behaving in a manner that is entirely unacceptable.
"For example, we have encountered abusive children within our locked yard, where piles of waste were left and broken glass and human faeces were widely spread.
"They usually have fairly aggressive and intimidating dogs. A large amount of industrial rubbish is always illegally dumped on our land from the businesses that they are operating.
"There have also been specific incidents of deliberate intimidation of our staff but, if we even speak to them and ask them to leave, they complain to the police that we are harassing them.
"I know that I, and several other managers of foreign-owned companies in Glenrothes, find it highly embarrassing to explain to our owners that this sort of behaviour is allowed in modern day Scotland.
"There is no doubt that this will be a factor in any decision about future investment in Glenrothes, Fife or Scotland."
Continued...
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