Traveller Eviction Leads to Retail Car Park Cleared of Six Vehicles in Liverpool
Related Services
Team Members Involved
The Situation
A group of travellers had moved onto the car park of a retail unit, setting up an unauthorised encampment of four caravans and two motorhomes. The site was in active daily use by customers and staff, and the vehicles occupied a substantial section of the parking area, disrupting trade and raising immediate concerns about waste, access and how long the group intended to stay.
Encampments on private commercial land create pressure on two fronts. Every day the vehicles remain is a day of lost parking capacity and unsettled customers, but a heavy-handed approach risks confrontation, damage to the site and reputational harm to the business. What the client needed was a firm, lawful removal handled with enough patience to reach a resolution without escalation.
After searching for traveller eviction specialists covering the North West and North Wales, the client contacted Strikes Property Services Group.
Our Approach
Two of our enforcement agents attended the site at 12.30pm on the first day, with the objective of serving paperwork on the occupants and either securing an immediate departure or agreeing a firm time for the following day. On arrival, our agents found four caravans and two motorhomes in place, and made contact with the group.
Not all of the occupants were on site when our agents arrived. Rather than press ahead with a partial engagement that would have had to be repeated, our team took the decision to remain on site and wait for the rest of the group to return so that a departure could be agreed with everyone present. That call took several hours, but it produced the result we wanted: by 4.15pm our agents were in direct conversation with the full group, and secured an agreement for the encampment to leave the following afternoon. Our agents relayed the terms to the office, the agreement was authorised, and the team stood down at 4.30pm having confirmed they would return the next morning.
Three agents re-attended at 8.30am the following day. Two of the motorhomes had already left overnight. The remaining occupants confirmed they intended to honour the agreement but wanted until late afternoon to find an alternative site. Our agents pressed for an earlier departure and made that position clear, then maintained a continuous presence on site throughout the day, returning to the group repeatedly to encourage them to move sooner.
Holding that presence mattered. It kept the agreement live, it gave the client visible reassurance that the matter was being actively managed, and it meant that when the group did begin to move there was no further negotiation required. The first caravan was hooked up and towed off the site at 4.30pm, and the remaining three were removed over the following 50 minutes.
Outcome
The car park was returned to the client clear of all vehicles within two days of our first attendance, without confrontation, damage to the site or any need for court proceedings. Once the last caravan had left, our agents photographed the cleared area to give the client a documented record of the site’s condition on departure, including the waste left along the perimeter fencing that needed clearing before the parking bays could be brought back into use. Our agents then briefed the store manager in person, explaining what had been done and what to do if the group or another encampment returned.
The case was managed by Roy Bennett (Enforcement Agent) and Chris Bane (Managing Director), with Janet Morris coordinating the operation between site and office, ensuring the client had a clear point of contact and an authorised decision at every stage of the two-day attendance.
