Staff at a Glenrothes firm have demanded action after a group of travellers camped on their property and left the company facing a hefty clean-up bill and costs to construct defences around their land.
Spectrogon UK Ltd, which is based in Southfield Industrial Estate, reckons the mess left behind in recent weeks will cost many thousands of pounds to rectify and believes it is time the imbalance between the rights of travellers and the rights of site owners is finally addressed.
If left untouched, it has even suggested the problem could seriously harm Fife’s economy as businesses aim to avoid the unnecessary costs incurred because of travellers’ unauthorised actions.
Two separate bands of caravans have camped on the company’s site in Whitworth Road in the past three weeks and, with the summer only just beginning, workers fear the situation will only get worse between now and September.
One worker at the firm, which manufactures and develops optical filters and other components, firmly believes “enough is enough” and wants Fife Council and the police to be given more powers to stop travellers from developing unauthorised stopover sites on private land.
The manager, who did not wish to be named, said, “We are reasonable people and we realise that a balance has to be found whereby law-abiding travellers can be accommodated by society, but it is the public sector’s place to take responsibility and to provide for this.’Poor public policy'”It is not our company’s responsibility to pay for appallingly poor public policy. The Scottish Government and the local council give the travellers rights and, effectively, immunity from prosecution for behavior that would get any other member of society arrested.
“However, the same public bodies then fail to provide adequate sites for the travellers.
“Even worse is that that the local council, and other public bodies like Scottish Enterprise, use public money to protect their own land with gates, fences and ditches. It is this combination of policy and action which is increasingly forcing the travellers on to private land.
“The police and the local councils then wash their hands of the problem on private land and tell us that we need to spend large sums of money on civil legal actions to evict the travellers and then on building defences to protect our own our land.
“It is effectively a tax on local businesses.”
The manager went on to confirm the whole process of going to the lawyers, getting to court, removing the travellers and cleaning up the mess is “tiring, frustrating and very expensive”.
He continued, “I am sure that a majority of the travellers as a whole are law-abiding people, but there is no doubt that a significant proportion that we have encountered are behaving in a manner that is entirely unacceptable.
“For example, we have encountered abusive children within our locked yard, where piles of waste were left and broken glass and human faeces were widely spread.
“They usually have fairly aggressive and intimidating dogs. A large amount of industrial rubbish is always illegally dumped on our land from the businesses that they are operating.
“There have also been specific incidents of deliberate intimidation of our staff but, if we even speak to them and ask them to leave, they complain to the police that we are harassing them.
“I know that I, and several other managers of foreign-owned companies in Glenrothes, find it highly embarrassing to explain to our owners that this sort of behaviour is allowed in modern day Scotland.
“There is no doubt that this will be a factor in any decision about future investment in Glenrothes, Fife or Scotland.”
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Another employee mentioned that piping and copper cabling was stolen from the site around this time. These incidents are being investigated by police.
Another employee added, “The money our company is being forced to spend is like a salary to someone in Glenrothes, but rather than being able to create jobs, businesses are having to spend the money on protecting their property from occupation by travellers.
“The cost of erecting a gate will be about £1700, we also need a skip to clear up the mess and we need a JCB to dig around the perimeter and that is going to be in the region of £1500.
“Then we have to bring the lawyers in to try to get the people off our land and it costs more money.
“It is not as if they have been camping on unused industrial wasteland, there is an attractive lawn around our factory which has been seriously damaged by large bonfires, lorry tyre tracks and an assortment of waste and excrement,” he added.
Spectrogon’s case is far from an isolated one, with many Fife firms having to spend thousands of pounds in recent years on clearing up mess or damage caused by members of the travelling community.
For example, near neighbours Fife Fabrications (FiFab) was left with a £10,000 bill after a group of 20 caravans set up camp on its car park at Southfield Industrial Estate in Glenrothes, while the Fife Food Centre, just around the corner from FiFab, had to pay out £27,000 after travellers damaged fences and property.
Glenrothes MP Lindsay Roy has been involved in several local companies’ disputes with the travellers and renewed his calls for something to be done.
“Despite promises by Fife Council last year to deal with this issue seriously, once again a local company has faced considerable costs in removing irresponsible travellers from their land,” he told The Courier.
“Not only have they incurred legal fees, but also additional costs in cleaning up the mess left behind. Hopefully this will not be the first of many such incidents in the Glenrothes area over the next few months.
“I support Fife Council’s aspiration to make Fife the best place to do business, however as long as we have such illegal encampments that place additional burdens on companies, this will act as a disincentive to new investors and job creation.
“Hence, I urge MSPs as a matter of priority to consider changing the law once the new Scottish Government is in place.
“It is neither right nor fair that businesses or local authorities should face huge bills to evict irresponsible travellers from their land and clear up the mess they leave behind the law must apply equally to all citizens.”