How to secure your business land from intruders
Cambridge welcomes thousands of visitors each summer, attracted by the combination of warm weather, the beautiful historic architecture, and the stunning countryside. Unfortunately, not all those visitors are as welcome as others. And the regular influx of travellers means that you might need to secure your business land from intruders.
The arrival of travellers on private land can be just the start of a long and costly process to remove them and then clean up the damage and rubbish they leave behind. So, how can you keep your land secure?
What are the laws about travellers?
The traveller lifestyle has a long history, and travellers are protected by various laws. Local authorities are all required to ensure there are sufficient, suitable, sites for travellers to use. There are ten such sites in and around Cambridge, all of which offer the space and facilities a traveller community would need during a stay.
Travellers do not need to use these sites, but they have no automatic right to stay on other public or private land either. Sadly, many ignore this, and various locations have suffered from unauthorised traveller stays because the land was not secure and didn’t have security services in place to protect it.
Can travellers be removed?
A traveller community staying on private land without permission is trespassing and can be removed. Unfortunately, the law of trespass puts the onus on the landowner to enforce their rights. If the land was not secure, and entry was gained without committing any crime, the police cannot do anything.
The landowner’s only option is to take court action to evict the travellers from the site. While security services can be used to prevent more arrivals, until the court has given permission, the landowner cannot take any action to remove the travellers.
Unsurprisingly, this route can be long and expensive. The landowner will have to pay the court and legal fees, and should the travellers resist the instruction to move, they will also have to pay for the eviction. Again, because it’s a civil matter the police will only become involved should a law be broken, they will not assist in the eviction itself.
This is why many landowners recognise that it’s much more cost-effective to secure their business land from intruders before any travellers arrive.
Using security services to prevent traveller encampments
Unfortunately, there are few easy answers to the problem of unwanted traveller encampments. The land they tend to occupy is, by definition, hard to secure. Large open spaces may be difficult to fence off effectively, and depending on the location, there might be restrictions on the physical security measures that can be put in place.
The best solution is to use security services to provide manned guarding of your site. This means that someone is on-site. In most cases, this will prevent travellers even attempting to use your land because someone is present to clearly refuse permission to travellers if they try.
If you have land that is at risk from a traveller encampment, it’s important to think about how to secure your business land from intruders before the issue arises. Call or email us today to find out how our manned guarding can keep your land safe.
