RICHARD Willett has been evicted from a Wiltshire Council owned gypsy and traveller site in Downton near Salisbury after he was found to have repeatedly burned rubbish in communal areas.

Burned rubbish included general waste in sacks and bin bags, fridges, freezers, plastic, wood, PVC doors and frames, carpet, cardboard, plastic boxes and fibreglass loft insulation.

The burning of these items was found to have caused nuisance to other residents as well as damaging the nearby environment.

Wiltshire Council says the issues began when Willett ignored requests by the council to clear up and stop burning the waste which was dumped in a communal turning and parking area.

When this did not resolve the issue, the council issued several verbal and written warnings, but Willett continued.

This resulted in the council issuing Willett with several legally enforceable warnings and notices, but he did not comply, resulting in him and his family being served with an eviction notice.

Following a trial hearing on August 9, the council was granted outright possession of Plot 9, Lode Hill Caravan Site and the family was given until September 23 to leave.

This did not happen, and so Willett and his family were evicted by bailiffs on November 7.

Councillor Phil Alford, cabinet member for housing, said: “Evicting someone from one of our sites is always a last resort, and we would always look to resolve the situation with the tenant where we can.

“However, we have given Mr Willett every opportunity to stop dumping and burning significant volumes of toxic rubbish, but he has continued to do so, causing both a nuisance to other residents and significant environmental harm.

“This gave us no choice but to evict Mr Willett and his family from the site to ensure the wellbeing of other residents and also help protect the local environment.

“Since this case was reported to us, we have done all we can to encourage and then require Mr Willett to change his ways and stop his anti-social behaviour, but he refused to do so at every stage and was uncooperative with our officers.

“As this case shows, we continue to take all actions available to us to prevent and end anti-social behaviour on council property and we hope the residents adversely affected are reassured by how seriously we take such matters.”