Abandoned caravans cost council thousands to remove

Abandoned caravans left on a country lane for more than two years have cost a council about £5,500 to remove.

It took Somerset Council workers a week to remove the 12 caravans and piles of rubbish from Watchwell Drove near Glastonbury.

Council leaders received numerous complaints about the site ahead of the clearance.

Councillor Federica Smith-Roberts, the council's lead for communities, said: "These actions were taken to maintain a clean, orderly, and safe environment."

The twelve caravans, and what was described by Smith-Roberts as a "significant amount of associated waste", were later destroyed by the council, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

There have been calls for a "state of emergency" to be declared in Glastonbury due to its high density of van-dwellers.

A previous Somerset Council report said, as of 25 February, there were 131 vans, caravans or motor homes being lived in on the roadside in Glastonbury.

Only Bristol has more in number, but Glastonbury has the highest density in the UK.

A scrutiny committee meeting was told in March that the council had spent more than £72,000 since 2021 removing 104 abandoned caravans.

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