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Revealed: Number of times council has used legal action to move Dundee Travellers

The figures were obtained through a freedom of information request submitted by The Courier.

By Laura Devlin

June 30 2025, 6:00am

Travellers at Drumgeith football pitches last year. Image: Kenny Smith/DC Thomson.

Dundee City Council has been forced to take legal action against Traveller encampments more than two dozen times in the past three years.

Figures obtained through a freedom of information (FOI) request reveal the local authority has had to take action 29 times since 2022.

Riverside Nature Reserve and Camperdown Park are among the areas reported to have had Traveller encampments during this time.

The FOI shows that in 2022, the council took legal action twice. The following year, action was taken eight times.

This rose again in 2023, with the local authority taking action 10 times. As of May this year, action has been taken nine times.

A Shetland pony is part of the Traveller group at Camperdown Park — A Shetland pony was part of a Travellers at Camperdown Park in May. Image: DC Thomson.

The Courier also asked how much the legal action had cost the council each year.

The FOI response detailed that the figures for 2022 and 2023 are not recorded and, due to the time it would take to check each invoice, refused this request.

However, it was revealed that in 2024 the local authority spent £1,602.81 on taking legal action against Traveller encampments.

And so far this year, £721.44 has been spent.

Travelling community shun purpose-built site

The figures come just months after The Courier revealed that £300,000 has been spent on repairs at a Dundee council-run Travellers site lying almost empty for five years.

Balmuir Wood is near Tealing on the A90 Dundee to Aberdeen dual carriageway.

In January, we reported that freedom of information data showed the camp had been unoccupied for 17 months of the previous 72.

Balmuir Wood Travellers site near Tealing. Image: Mhairi Edwards/DC Thomson.

However, Dundee City Council’s repair and maintenance bill for Balmuir Wood since 2019 was £335,659.

That included £126,000 spent on 2022/23.

And just last month, councillors agreed a plan to spend a further £236,656 on work to fully upgrade the amenity blocks at the site.

The repairs are scheduled to be completed this month and are being funded from Dundee City Council’s 2025-2030 capital plan.

A Dundee City Council spokesperson said: “Legal action is taken as the last available measure in order to deal with unauthorised encampments on public land in circumstances where engagement and advice have already taken place.”