Test Valley Borough Council will lobby the government to make trespassing a criminal offence in a bid to clamp down on unauthorised traveller encampments.

Councillors passed a motion, proposed by Cllr Phil Bundy, that the Council should write to the government to urge “the urgent creation of criminal offences of trespass when setting up an unauthorised encampment, entering upon land as a trespasser with the purpose of residing there in a vehicle and residing in an unauthorised encampment.”

This would bring the UK into line with Ireland, where trespass is a criminal offence, and carries the maximum sentence of a €4,000 fine, a month’s imprisonment, or both.

Cllr Bundy said that the costs of clearing up the land after encampment were “a fine for the landowner for the dubious pleasure of having travellers break into the land.”

He said: “The objective of the motion is not to penalise those in society who behave in a law-abiding manner but to protect our residents from the antisocial and irresponsible behaviour we have experienced from travellers.”

The motion follows TVBC successfully obtaining a High Court injunction prohibiting unauthorised encampments in July this year.

Cllr Dowden, who seconded the motion, said that evicting travellers was “environmentally, financially and emotionally damaging.”

“As councillors we have a duty of care to TVBC residents to protect our open green spaces from these unauthorised encampments, which deny the rights of residents to enjoy their community spaces, and cost them financially through the resulting court order and legal costs and also through the necessary clean up and restoration operation costs.”

When the motion was opened to debate, a number of councillors expressed reservations over the wording of the motion. Cllr Thom said that he was concerned it would criminalise other activities, such as “wild camping”, and that TVBC should consider whether it wanted to make families homeless.

Cllr Parker agreed, and said that “part of the fundamental problem is that there appears to be a lack of transit camps.”

“I urge the council to work with other councils to provide a network of approved transit sites,” he said.

The motion was subsequently carried when put to a vote, with the vast majority voting in favour.

TVBC was criticised by a representative for The Traveller Movement, a charity which represents traveller communities in the UK, who called the motion “counter-productive, divisive and quite frankly, pointless.”

“This motion is deeply flawed and does nothing to address the blatant lack of site provision or stopping places available to nomadic Gypsies and Travellers, not to mention the deep rooted discrimination experienced by these communities on a daily basis.

“Further, we strongly disagree with the criminalisation of trespass. The police and local authorities already have sufficient powers to remove unauthorised encampments. As an organisation that works with Gypsy and Traveller communities we think this should remain a civil matter.

“This motion will only serve to inflame community tensions and further marginalise local Travellers.”