Andrew Griffith, local MP for Midhurst, Petworth and the South Downs has welcomed new plans on unauthorised traveller camps, a major issue facing rural communities in West Sussex which received national attention in 2025 with the attempts to turn fields in Lurgashall into a residential caravan park over a bank holiday weekend.
New plans announced by the Shadow Home Secretary include:
Leaving the ECHR and repealing the Human Rights Act. This will sweep away the loopholes that prevent concrete action, ensuring all communities play by the same rules.
Backing the police with the power to ban travellers from returning to encampments indefinitely. The police will be given the power to remove travellers if requested by the landowner – going further than has previously been possible.
Making it an offence to trespass with a vehicle after being directed to leave and scrapping the ban on removing trespassing travellers if no alternative site is available.
Andrew Griffith said:
“Residents locally are all too aware of the two-tier planning system which has emerged from the courts creating a special status in planning rules for so-called Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities. Rural communities are impacted such as in Lurgashall last year and ongoing situations nearby. The simple principle is that all should be equal under the law, so I welcome this commitment.”
Photograph credit: "Byline/copyright Eddie Mitchell”
