Man evicted from site for repeated dumping and burning of rubbish

A Downton man has been evicted from a council-owned Gypsy and Traveller site.

Richard Willett, of 9 Lode Hill Caravan Site was evicted following repeated dumping and burning rubbish on the site.

The council said it was causing a nuisance to other residents and damage to the nearby environment.

Cllr Phil Alford, Cabinet Member for Housing, said: “Evicting someone from one of our sites is always a last resort, and we would always look to resolve the situation with the tenant where we can.

“However, we have given Mr Willett every opportunity to stop dumping and burning significant volumes of toxic rubbish, but he has continued to do so, causing both a nuisance to other residents and significant environmental harm.

“This gave us no choice but to evict Mr Willett and his family from the site to ensure the wellbeing of other residents and also help protect the local environment.

“Since this case was reported to us, we have done all we can to encourage and then require Mr Willett to change his ways and stop his anti-social behaviour, but he refused to do so at every stage and was uncooperative with our officers.

“As this case shows, we continue to take all actions available to us to prevent and end anti-social behaviour on council property and we hope the residents adversely affected are reassured by how seriously we take such matters.”