A site for travellers in Swindon is set to receive a half-a-million pound refurbishment. 

Swindon Borough Council has announced that £500,000 will be spent on the Chiseldon Firs Transit Site. 

Although located outside of Swindon, the site is within the borough and offers Gypsies and Travellers that come through Swindon a safe area that does not impact on local residents and reduces unauthorised encampments.

But over the years the site has fallen into disrepair and has often been seen as unappealing to those it has been offered to.

The council has been awarded £514,389 in funding from the Government’s Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and intends to use the money to make the area secure from the public and safer for those who want to use it.

The planned improvements to the site will include a new purpose-built area with community facilities and showers and toilets.

Work will also be done to landscape the area and provide clear access to and from it. 

Individual plots of land for vehicles and caravans, a new play area, and a new septic tank are also planned additions,

As well as an electricity supply and feeder pillars for water and electricity, CCTV and a 'dedicated animal area.'

The work is due to be completed by Spring 2024.

Councillor Janine Howarth, Swindon Borough Council’s cabinet member for housing, said: “I am delighted to have received this funding. With this new funding, we will now be able to make this a site that communities want to use.

“This will hopefully reduce the number of unauthorised encampments that occur across the Borough. I’m really keen to see the work get started.

“In the meantime, we will continue to work with all Gypsy and Traveller communities who pass through Swindon to ensure the minimum disruption is made to local residents and public spaces.”

Changes to the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act mean it is now a criminal offence for anyone (one vehicle or more) who enters or has intentions to enter land without permission to camp.

If they are causing a significant impact on the land they occupy, and the local community, this can lead to a prison sentence, a fine or seeing their vehicle seized by Wiltshire Police.