Unauthorised occupation of public land in the borough could be banned after councillors approved the injunction. 

On Thursday, October 4, the community services and open spaces scrutiny committee gave its backing for the council's lawyers to seek additional legal powers that would be used to bring unlawful land occupations to a swifter conclusion. 

The scheme is said to mean groups of people unlawfully occupying public land could be removed more quickly, but also will ensure they could not leave one site and move to another adjacent one. 

To achieve this the council is to seek a borough–wide injunction that would apply to all council-owned public open spaces and highways and provide an immediate fast-track route to bring occupations to an end without requiring a magistrates court order.
 
The council would no longer be required to seek lengthy and time consuming court orders in order to secure evictions.

Parks and open spaces spokesman Cllr Steffi Sutters said: “As things stand, if there is an unauthorised occupation in a park or open space it can take weeks for the eviction process to be brought to an end. During that time a great deal of environmental damage can be done which ends up costing taxpayers large sums of money to put right.
 
“Let me be clear, the law applies to everyone. People are not entitled to simply set up camp in a park or common. These green spaces are there for the whole community to enjoy and this is not possible if people have occupied parts of that land and essentially restricted it for their own unauthorised use.
 
“We have seen that in other parts of London these injunctions have proved effective in limiting the impact of these occupations, which is why we will now pursue this matter though the courts.”
 
Borough wide injunctions are being increasingly used by councils as a reasonable measure to deal with unauthorised occupations of land under their control.

Other London local authorities to already be using these injunctions include Enfield, Sutton, Croydon, Barking & Dagenham and Waltham Forest.
 
Labour councillor Judi Gasser, shadow cabinet member for Open Spaces: "I am very disappointed with Wandsworth's decision to seek a blanket injunction against travellers. We should be working to find safe and decent places for them to stay, not making them feel discriminated against and unwelcome. 

"It was shocking to hear comments about 'people who cannot read' and 'set fire to caravans'; Wandsworth Labour calls for the Council to pause legal proceedings while the GLA works to find a London-wide solution to lack of spaces for travellers; in the meantime we should negotiate with the families to find places they can stop." 
 
The last major land occupation took place on Tooting Common in 2013, where 134 cubic metres of rubbish was dumped costing taxpayers £25,000 to clear up. Since then there have been 28 other incursions on council owned land in the borough.