While the summer months brings a large number of tourists into Cornwall it is also the time when travellers and Gypsies are most likely to visit the Duchy.

And though many will use designated sites when they stay, there will always be some who decide to pitch up where they want. Sometimes this can lead to them obstructing public or private land, causing a nuisance and, occasionally, leaving rubbish.

Recently there have been travellers in St Ives and Bodmin where there have been calls to the council to raise concerns and seek help.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service spoke to Edwina Hannaford, Cornwall Council Cabinet member for neighbourhoods, about the role the council plays in helping travellers and landowners.

“It all depends on whose land it is,” she explains. “It is the landowner’s responsibility and we can only act when travellers are on our land. That’s not to say that Cornwall Council won’t help landowners and give advice.”

The recent incident in St Ives was complicated by the council not owning the land but leasing it. So it did step in to help.

“We have a Gypsy liaison officer who will go out and do a welfare check,” she said. “We are bound by various bits of legislation, including the Equality Act, Housing Act and the fact that Gypsies and travellers are a minority race.

“The welfare check involves getting information on any vulnerable groups who might be in the group – whether that is elderly people, pregnant women or young children.

“We have to check out their access to the things they need, such as water and that sort of thing.”

They will then liaise with the travellers and talk to them about how long they are expecting to stay.

The council has an unauthorised encampment group which brings together representatives from different departments including housing, planning enforcement, dog welfare and education.

Cornwall Housing manages the process and Cllr Hannaford also sits in on the meetings they have.

Cllr Hannaford said: “The legislation says that eviction and enforcement must be reasonable and proportionate. We have to weigh that up with safety, not just for the travellers but for the surrounding community as well.”

If travellers are obstructing roads, showing anti-social behaviour or having an adverse impact on nearby residents then the council is able to act. And the police can act as well.

But Cllr Hannaford said: “They often choose not to use their powers as the confrontation that it creates can sometimes be worse.

“We can issue a notice to leave and that will often be a notice to quit within three days. Most of those in St Ives recently did just leave on their own in that time, but we did start to draw up court proceedings.”

If the council goes down the legal route it has to apply to magistrates to get an eviction notice and then instruct bailiffs, a process which can take up to a week depending on the availability of courts and staff.

It also costs money, with drawing up a notice to leave costing around £200, and if the council then has to engage solicitors and go to court it can be as much as £3,000.

Cllr Hannaford said: “Gypsies and travellers know their rights and they know the processes. Even if we act immediately it can take some time before we can start to take action.

“With the travellers in St Ives we found that there were a couple of pregnant women there and they had appointments they had to get to so we knew they would leave soon.

“We want to work with the travellers and be reasonable, although the community would probably say that isn’t good enough.”

However Cllr Hannaford was keen to point out that while the council does have to deal with some unauthorised encampments that was not to say that all Gypsies and travellers are a problem.

She said: “There are some lovely Gypsies and travellers out there, just like you and me. And there is under-provision here in Cornwall.

“We have some transit sites and we have three permanent sites, but we need more. The local plan identified that we need about 300 pitches and we are nowhere near that.”

The Cabinet member said the council was also working with charities to work with travellers in the county and had had some “real success” in helping families and getting children into school.

But she said it was always going to be an issue when it comes to unauthorised encampments.

“It is a conflict of different lifestyles,” she added. “As a liberal I want people to live their lives how they want to and to support and uphold the law, but often that comes into conflict with the rest of the community.

“There are some terrible things said about Gypsies and travellers and we have a duty to protect them from that discrimination.

“We have had a grant from the Government to help us with this and, this is something that probably won’t go down well, we do use some affordable housing as it is part of our housing mix. It is no different from anyone else, we have to make provision for everyone.

“It is a bit of a nightmare really.”

She added: “We do the best that we can within the legislation that we have got and wanting to do the right thing.”