THE Tice’s Meadow nature reserve in Badshot Lea, nurtured with great care out of the former Farnham Quarry, was left to resemble a rubbish tip after a six-day travellers incursion came to an end last Tuesday.

A group of travellers broke into the reserve on Wednesday the previous week by cutting the chains and locks on the gates to the old plant yard, off the A331/A31 roundabout, which they replaced with their own locks to control access to the site.

Before long caravans, vans and trucks began arriving on the site and within days they had dumped a large pile of rubbish including garden waste, fridges, furniture, building waste and gas bottles.

The Tice’s Meadow Bird Group notified the former gravel pit’s owner Hanson on the Thursday morning, as well as the police and the Blackwater Valley Countryside Partnership.

Hanson immediately began eviction proceedings at court, and eviction papers were served on the Friday, giving the travellers until Tuesday, November 14, to leave.

The trespassers were later filmed burning a mound of waste and the police attended the site, but apparently took no action to prevent the fly-tipping or environmental damage.

A spokesman for Surrey Police later told The Herald: “We received a report of fly-tipping in progress just before 11am on November 11 in Runfold. Two units attended but the offence was over before they arrived.

“When fly-tipping does not block a road or is not a crime in action it is the responsibility of the land owner who will need to arrange for its disposal.”

The travellers eventually vacated the nature reserve on Tuesday morning, but not before littering the site with yet more mounds of rubbish and human excrement.

Tice’s Meadow is a newly developing nature reserve and Site of Nature Conservation Interest (SNCI), roughly 150 acres in size, on the site of the former Farnham Quarry.

The site is owned by Hanson, and managed by a committee consisting of representatives from Hanson, the Tice’s Meadow Bird Group, Surrey County Council and the Blackwater Valley Countryside Partnership.

Over 1,100 animal species have been recorded on site, including an impressive 194 species of bird, and the site is widely considered to be one of the best inland birdwatching sites in the South East.

Badshot Lea villagers and users of the nature reserve expressed anger at the culmination of the week-long saga, not just for the actions of the travellers but also for the perceived inaction of Surrey Police.

Richard Seargent, a former Army officer and member of the Tice’s Meadow Bird Group, said: “I reported the incident to the police on Wednesday morning just after the incursion happened.

“On Saturday I sent them a video of a vehicle depositing rubbish on site and informed 101 that the dumping was continuing. They sent someone around but that individual did not enter the site. Had they done so I suspect they could have taken action.  

“This is my view only but the police appeared unwilling to intervene although criminal damage and anti-social behaviour had taken place. This lack of action allows travellers to carry on with their behaviour wherever they stop.”

Cliff Watts, of the Badshot Lea Community Association, added: “These people give the impression that they cause as much mayhem and filth as they possibly can.

“It is obvious that they could not possibly have found that many tons of rubbish over the few days they were there without previous knowledge and contact. They were not simply patrolling the local streets looking for stuff.

“I would have thought it would be easy to find out the mobile telephone numbers using that area over that few days and then seeing where they went so as to identify the sites they visited. At least someone could end up with a fine.

“The police may see that to be a lot of trouble but something must be done to counter this.

“At this very moment some other poor community is now going through the same horrendous experience.”

A spokesman for Hanson UK said: “The travellers left the site either late on Monday evening or very early Tuesday morning. The possession hearing before a judge at Aldershot County Court scheduled for 11.45am [Tuesday] was therefore cancelled.

“The site has now been secured and the scale of the clean-up operation is being assessed.”

The Herald understands it is the third time the Tice’s Meadow nature reserve has been targeted by travellers in recent years.

It also comes just weeks after the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for Surrey, David Munro, stepped up calls for action on unauthorised traveller encampments - appealing directly to the Government to address the issue in Surrey and across the country.

The PCC has written to the Home Secretary and the Secretaries of State for the Ministry of Justice and Department for Communities and Local Government asking them to lead the way in commissioning a wide-ranging and detailed report on this issue.