Coton and Boughton Borough Councillors explain :- During the summer, our ward was particularly hard hit with unauthorised encampments both on council and private land. The three of us were in regular contact with all the relevant authorities all summer, and continually pushing for solutions to this issue as one group moved around Strawberry Fields, Brownsover, Boughton Vale and Coton Park.

In August, Rugby Borough Council took the bold step to apply for an injunction and on 31 August this was granted, to prevent unauthorised encampments on council land. This now means that any unauthorised encampments on Rugby Borough Council land can now be moved on without the need to obtain a court order.

This solved one of the issues, however did not deal with any encampments on developer land—of which there is a large amount in this ward, especially on both Eden and Coton Parks.

Your three Councillors called a meeting, chaired by Cllr. Seb Lowe, towards the end of August with Warwickshire Police, Coton Park Residents’ Association, Eden Park Community Association, Mark Pawsey MP, local developers and Rugby Borough Council officers.

The result of the meeting is a Protocol, developed by Warwickshire Police and agreed by Cala Homes, which provides a guide of what to do and who to contact when an unauthorised encampment occurs. This does not transfer responsibility to the police but instead advises land owners of what they can do and at what point the police can get involved. Nothing like this existed and as we discovered this summer, when people are on holiday, workers on building sites often don’t know what they can or cannot do. Hopefully this will make life easier for all residents going forward. 

As a result of these actions this protocol is now being adopted nationally.

Photo: Cllr. Seb Lowe chaired the meeting in August. 

Photo 2:  

Councillor Carolyn Robbins  Tel: 01788 540206 Email: [email protected] 

Councillor Sebastian Lowe Tel: 0868767 Email: [email protected]

Councillor Jill Simpson-Vince Tel: 07970 903354 Email: [email protected] or [email protected]