ILLEGAL traveller sites have cost councils more than £50,000 in the last three years, a Somerset MP has revealed. 

Burnham-on-Sea MP, James Heappey spoke in the House of Commons on October 9 about the impact illegeal travellers are having on communities in his constituency in a lively debate. 

Mr Heappey said Mendip District Council spent £27,745 to initiate legal proceedings to move a group of travellers after they set up camp in Shepton Mallet just before Glastonbury Festival in June. 

The MP said Somerset County Council has also spent £25,000 moving travellers from public highways in the last three years and £6,000 on clearing away mess left by travellers. 

"I want to thank Sedgemoor and Mendip District Councils and Somerset County Council for the enthusiasm with which they provided me with information for my contribution," Mr Heappey said. 

"That tells us something about how big an issue this is for them.

"It is also an issue of real importance for my constituents, who have been angered again and again by illegal encampments.

"In the past two years, there have been illegal encampments in Berrow, Street and routinely in the car parks and sports club of Burnham-on-Sea.

"There have also been illegal encampments in Shepton Mallet and Brean.”

Mr Heappey said illegal traveller camps put a strain on council and police budgets and said travellers who set up the illegal camps have no costs to pay. 

The MP addressed MP's at the House of Commons ahead of a meeting with Sajid Javid, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government where he will talk about tackling illegal encampments. 

He encouraged ministers to find a way of making the process for removing illegal encampments quicker and cheaper for local authorities saying that there can no longer be one rule for the travellers and another rule for everyone else.

"We live in a beautiful part of the world, with a good local economy, but surely our liability for travellers cannot be unlimited or set simply by traveller demand.

"We must be willing to say what is a fair provision for councils to offer.

"We must reduce costs to local authorities or find a way to pass them on to the travellers who are illegally encamped.”