Thursday January 22nd 2026
West Lothian Council headquarters
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Stuart Sommerville
Councillors across the chambers in Livingston praised the work put in to review the response to travellers’ encampments.
A short term working group was set up in September after a plea by SNP councillor Andrew Miller was supported by a full council vote.
Broxburn’s Conservative councillor Angela Doran-Timson had proposed the council lobby for a change in the law following a series of unauthorised encampments across the county last summer.
Depute-Chief Executive Dr Elaine Cook told this month’s meeting of the full council that the working group had met three times so far.
Council officers have been asked to identify potential sites which can be used by travellers- there are currently none in the county.
The council had to rely on a Sheriff’s orders to remove travellers from sites in Livingston, Bathgate and the Broxburn and Linlithgow areas over the summer.
Clean up costs for the sites ran into tens of thousands of pounds, with the council having to call in specialist contractors to remove asbestos and other building waste as well as timber and garden refuse.
The cross party working group also has input from the police, community councils and various council departments.
Councillor Sally Pattle (Lib Dem, Linlithgow) said being a member of the group was an invaluable experience.
She added: “I’d like to say thanks to Elaine, and to Councillor Conn and Councillor Doran-Timson for their chairing duties. It was a huge amount of work we were able to power through before Christmas.
“It was very positive to see the number of different agencies and departments that had come together to discuss this. I really want to pay tribute to the work of officers in getting us along the road as far as we have come, and I very much look forward to working on the next part.”
Councillor Doran-Timson said she too wanted to “acknowledge the hard work and dedication of everyone involved.”
She cautioned on the identification of potential traveller sites and stressed that local residents would have to be involved in the decisions to ensure fairness to both local residents as well as traveller groups.
Councillor Miller told the meeting: “I would echo the comments thanking the chairs for doing a really good jobs. It has been a really positive experience so far. Hopefully we are moving toward a more positive approach to traveller engagement. I’m looking forward to it continuing”.
The working group will report to the April meeting of the Corporate Policy and resources PDSP and the May meeting of the full council.
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