Residents of Lewisham were today told they would be picking up the bill for the mess created by travellers who recently left the Girton Road Car Park. Travellers who had occupied the site on the 20th October were forced to vacate on 11th November having been threatened with legal action by Lewisham Council.
Lewisham Conservatives welcome the swift action taken by the council in evicting the travellers from the overflow section of the car park but are critical of the Council's overall attitude to travellers sites. Having closed the Thurston Road travellers site to make way for the Lewisham Gateway redevelopment in 2006, a series of replacements have been proposed, approved and then abandoned by the council.
The last application was abandoned by Mayor Bullock in a U-Turn following public outcry. A series of botched consultations have left Lewisham stagnant when it comes to the issue of travellers, vulnerable to the occupation of sites such as the residents of Sydenham have seen.