Edinburgh travellers given eviction note to leave illegal Granton site say "we are going nowhere"
The group of travellers living at an illegal site in Granton have been given an eviction notice to leave before the end of the month.
However, one traveller family told the Evening News that they plan to fight the eviction set for January 26, as they “have nowhere else to go”.
The illegal travellers site between West Granton Road and Waterfront Avenue has been earmarked for a state-of-the-art home for Scotland's national collection of 130,000 artworks, The Art Works, as part of the wider Granton Waterfront development, with construction work at the site due to start soon.
Locals living in properties neighbouring the site have expressed their anger at issues with fires and fly-tipping there, where travellers have been living for years, some since 2019.
One traveller, Jim, who asked for his surname to not be revealed, explained why he and his family can’t move out, with his wife due to give birth in February. And he revealed that the travellers living there have sought legal advice about the eviction notice, which was pinned to a fence at the entrance on January 5, giving the travellers 21 days notice to vacate the site.
He said: “I don’t know if it’s an official eviction notice, we have got lawyers looking into it at the moment. But they have asked us to leave by the end of the month. They have got to do better than that to get me out.
“We are not moving. How can we move? Where can we go? My wife is due to give birth in February so it’s really not good timing. And there’s another lady living here due to give birth in April.
“I have not seen one member of the council come down here, to check on our kids’ wellbeing or anything.
“I’m so angry about it all. We had no running water or toilets during the cold weather and my wife had two infections because of the conditions, but nobody from the council has come down to check on us and our welfare. They don’t care about us.
“We have however got some support from the local community who want us to stay.
“We are not moving. They can’t just snap their fingers and move us on, where can we go?”
Jim questioned why the planned new Social Bite housing site at nearby Gypsy Brae could not accommodate his family and the other families living at the illegal travellers site in Granton.
He said: “They are making a site down at Gypsy Brae for homeless people, which is ridiculous as that’s a travellers’ site, there is a clue in the name. They should move us there, as we are going to be homeless soon.
“It would be great if they moved us there, as we are part of the local community, we’ve put down roots, we like it here, and the kids have settled in well at the local school. It’s our community now, the kids love it here.”
One local resident living near the illegal site in Granton, who asked not to be named, is still frustrated that it has taken so long for an eviction notice to be served on the travellers.
He said: “Whilst it’s positive news that the evictions have been served it’s not acceptable that it has taken hours and hours of correspondence and months and months of waiting without any progress or action taken by any parties.
“Notwithstanding some of those on the unauthorised encampment have threatened not too move, so it’s only when the people and vehicles are removed, the site made totally secure and the years of industrial and human waste is cleared from the site, can a normality return to our lives.
“We personally have endured over 12 months of every day seeing the squalor and unsightliness of the unauthorised encampment and the dread of going to bed every night totally afraid to look out the window in case there is yet another huge blaze of industrial waste including tyres with the associated vast black toxic clouds - sometimes hundreds of feet in the sky - being allowed to burn uncontrolled.
“It really impacts on your mental health and well-being and how you feel about your home and community.
“If it had been in Stockbridge or Morningside there is no doubt this would have been dealt with months ago. And, how come other councils and landlords across Scotland can close unauthorised sites and evict unauthorised travellers in weeks not months or years?”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Development on the site is due to start following the green light in the Scottish Budget for construction of The Art Works project. Site development and construction works will make it impossible for people to remain there.
“The Scottish Government has gone through a legal process to obtain an order requiring those illegally camped on Scottish Government-owned land to leave. This notice was served on January 5.
“The Scottish Government continues to work closely with the City of Edinburgh Council to have the land in Granton cleared and secured by the end of the month.
“Both are working to deliver a suitable and sustainable solution which includes appropriate accommodation being identified and made available and balances the needs of all communities involved.”