Travellers have forced me to close my business, says expectant mum of twins

Lisa Macmillan has temporarily closed J's Cafe and Deli after around 40 travellers’ caravans arrived on Thursday night.

She and her partner took over the cafe just months ago with dreams of building a family business at the popular tourist site.

The 28-year-old, from Brighton, said the travellers’ children have been running riot, deterring customers, and people do not want to sit and eat overlooking the unauthorised encampment.

The expectant mother of twins said she intends to close J's Cafe and Deli, Wild Park, until the travellers have moved on.

Late last night (Tuesday), the council said it had agreed emergency powers with the police to force the travellers to move on this morning (Wed). 

The loss of income means she will struggle to pay the rent on the site and has had to suspend employees’ work.

Describing some of the problems, she said: “They have got their caravans just down from the café where we put chairs and tables down for people to sit.

“They have got dogs that just bark constantly.

“I have had boys swearing at me and four-year olds swearing at me. There was human faeces outside the café.

“I went up there yesterday and they had managed to unscrew all of the bolts and take the butterflies that go on the shutters.

“I am four months pregnant and I am having to get my employees to come up with me.

"The adults are actually quite polite – it’s the children, they just run riot."

New traveller sites are opening in the city but many fear there will still not be enough spaces, and until then the council’s powers to move travellers on are restricted.

The council has applied for an order in the county court to take possession of the land, which has yet to be decided.

A spokesman said they could not say how long it would take for the travellers to be moved on, but said it would probably be a matter of days rather than weeks.

Mick Murphy, a traveller at the site, said the children were in some cases being wrongly accused, adding they were also paying customers who could spend up to £200 per day at the business.

Miss Macmillan, 28, took over the café in May with her partner, Jamie.

She said they tried to keep the café open after the travellers' arrival on Thursday but the last straw was when they had to cancel a children’s party.

She said: “We had spent quite a lot of money and weeks getting the business up, getting a good name.

“We wanted to build up a business – it is such a lovely place. Normally I come up here at 6.30am and put the tables out and get everything ready and sit outside and have a nice, quiet cup of coffee.

“Then last Thursday the caravans arrived.

“We were supposed to have a children’s party yesterday but it was cancelled because they were disgusted.

“They did not want their children there but next door there is a soft play area so they went there instead, because otherwise the kid’s birthday would have been spoilt.

“So I made a decision yesterday that we would not open until they have gone.

“I have spoken to the council about my rent to see if they can give me some time. I have had to tell employees, I cannot open and therefore I cannot pay you.

"It will take weeks and weeks to recover."

One of her employees, Scott Payne, 26, said: “I cannot work because she cannot pay me for being here if we are not making any money.

“People say the travellers bring in money but they don’t bring in enough to keep this place open.

“We lose so much from the fact that we have our regular customers who come in and sit down and but they don’t want to come up here when the caravans are here.

"I have got children at home to pay for."

Speaking to The Argus at the site yesterday, Mr Murphy said travellers were often blamed for damage or rowdiness committed by others, and they were often treated like animals.

He added: “I have been here many years coming back and forward; fair enough she is there – we respect that.

“Now maybe there are one hundred travelling kids living here in the caravans – there would be a big income loss if we were not here.

“The children come and they are not harming anyone but straight away it is as if they are animals.

“Now maybe there are a few kids out of order but when the parents are there we correct them.

“A couple of nights ago there was a lot of non-travellers kicking balls around and we were getting the blame for that.”

Sussex Police confirmed it had received complaints from more than one business, which were being investigated.

• Also read: The Argus leader column - Dream turns sour

GROUP WILL BE EVICTED EARLY TODAY

BRIGHTON and Hove City Council said late last night it had agreed emergency powers with the police to force the travellers in Wild Park to move on by 9am today.

A council spokesman said it had started applying to the county court for a possession order of the land but decided to submit an emergency eviction request under Section 61 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 to the police after the impact upon businesses became clear.

A council spokeswoman said this was agreed as The Argus went to press last night, adding: “There were other issues of anti-social behaviour that were reported to the police and investigated.

“The result of these developments were that we submitted a Section 61 request to the police and this was agreed today.

“Notices have now been served by the police giving the travellers until 9am tomorrow to vacate the land.

“This is an emergency power and as such the threshold that would trigger its use is high.”

Without the emergency power, the council would have had to rely on getting a possession order via county court – which could take more than one week.

The spokeswoman said: “This gives the council possession of the land and enables us to remove trailers or anything else relating to an encampment.

“We apply for a possession order via our lawyers and our traveller team initially sends a witness statement to them as soon as a joint visit with the police has been carried out.

“We then apply to the court for a hearing date.

“We are dependent on court time as to how long the process takes but we are generally looking at about 10 days.”

HOW TO BALANCE RIGHTS OF EVERYONE

THE QUESTION of how to balance the rights of travellers and residents has been a delicate problem for Brighton and in Hove for a number of years.

And the difficulty is particularly acute in Brighton as travellers regularly establish unauthorised camps due to a lack of legal space elsewhere, causing inevitable friction with residents.

This week a new 12-pitch permanent traveller site opened in Horsdean, with 21 temporary pitches soon to open to replace 23 that were formerly there.

It is hoped the £2.3 million site will make it easier to move on travellers from parks and other green spaces because authorities can only issue a Section 62a eviction notice if there is somewhere for them to be moved on to.

But the 40 caravans that have turned up at Wild Park this week, causing havoc for the local café owner, highlight the potential inadequacy of that solution.

“If we have lots of travelling families in the city between now and Christmas and the transit site is full, we will be back to where we were before,” Conservative councillor Lee Wares said.

Earlier this month councillors controversially agreed to use Public Space Protection Orders to move on travellers from 12 of the sites they commonly use.

It means council officers will be able to take action rather than relying on existing police powers.

And it makes Brighton the first city to use the orders against travellers; they are more commonly used against street drinkers or others committing anti-social behaviour.

The power is expected to be in use by the end of the year, to allow enough time for council officers to be trained.

Civil liberties and traveller campaigners have warned the powers could breach the human rights of travellers and could result in costly legal challenges.

And whether all of that will dent the simmering tension between one way of life and another remains to be seen.

Speaking to The Argus this week, traveller Mick Murphy, 55, said: “There will always be travelling people however high they put up the barriers – that is something the Government will never be able to stop.”