Drum Brae Park - Travellers Update

Residents will know that over the past few weeks, there has been another unauthorised traveller encampment on Drum Brae Park by the Leisure Centre. 

After previous visits, the Lib Dem team met several times with Council teams to push for physical barriers to be implemented at entrances to the park, to prevent them returning. Only a few days before they returned, the team were told that no barriers were going to be put in place. 

Over the last few weeks, the team have worked with the Council to get waste collections in place, a contractor on standby for clear-up, and to begin the legal process to move the encampment along. 

As most residents will now know, the travellers left the park on Sunday 30th March. 

The following day, at a meeting with various Council services, the team pushed for swift action to clear up the park and to reconsider requests from the community for barriers to be installed. 

Local Lib Dem councillor Ed Thornley said, "The Council have had a contractor on standby to clear up the park, so they'll start work in the coming few days. It was also good to learn that the Council and Edinburgh Leisure are now working together to install some form of barrier. 

“We don't yet know exactly what that will be and when it will be in place, though the preference in the meeting was for a fence and gate (to allow emergency vehicle access), all concreted in.”

In other areas, travellers have used heavy-duty equipment to remove such barriers, so the team also pushed for the Council and Edinburgh Leisure to look into better CCTV, meaning that if the barriers are damaged, there is evidence to allow the police to act. 

Ed added, “This has been a really frustrating period for the community, especially after the Council refused to learn the lessons from last time. However, it seems that the need for physical measures has been accepted, and we'll do our best to keep residents up to date in the usual places.”