Ealing residents are being urged to sign a petition demanding an injunction aimed at preventing travellers from setting up camp on the borough's green spaces.
Councillor Joanna Dabrowska, who has created the petition, has also urged people not to give work to members of the travelling community.
The petition has been signed by 350 members of the public within a day of going online.
The Ealing Common councillor and Conservative spokeswoman for planning argues that a borough-wide injunction on all public open spaces is the only solution following claims of antisocial behaviour, fly-tipping and littering at illegal encampments - three of which happened last month.
However, the chief executive of London Gypsies and Travellers - an organisation which provides support to members of the community has urged residents to consider both sides of the story.
"A borough wide-injunction order does not offer any solution to the accommodation needs of gypsies and travellers living on roadside encampments, but only pushes families out of the borough to other areas," said Debby Kennett.
She added that asking residents to avoid using services provided by travellers was "unacceptable and should be challenged".
'Irreparable damage to community'
Cllr Dabrowska is urging her fellow councillors to "wake up" to the issue of illegal encampments in Ealing.
"The time and financial costs spent dealing with unauthorised encampments in the borough of Ealing is excessive, directing valuable resources away from local authority service provision," she said.
"Cleaning up of the fly-tips and human waste together with the antisocial behaviour and daily disruption to the community is vast.
"These costs do not include police and fire brigade resources spent in dealing with such encampments.
"These costs will only spiral into the millions if we don't do something now. The non-financial impact on the community and immediate residents is immeasurable.
"The damage to our community is irreparable."
Cllr Dabrowska said that a group who arrived on Ealing Common almost three years ago remained on the green space for up to five months.
She also told getwestlondon that one of the three encampments in August resulted in "soiled nappies and used toilet paper with human faeces" being dumped.
"What needs to happen for Ealing Council to wake up?," she stated in one blog post.
"We need to show that we will come down hard on those who are disrespectful towards our community and are not welcome."
According to the Tory councillor, in the last five years there have been an estimated 140 reported unauthorised encampments in Ealing, 80 of which have been on council property - including Ealing Common.
Following an illegal encampment in Warwick Road, Cllr Dabrowska urged locals to avoid hiring members of the travelling community for work.
"Please don't encourage the travellers by accepting their offer of clearing your waste," she wrote in a blog post on August 20.
"It is extremely likely that the travellers are not licensed and you (as the owner of the waste) can receive a hefty fine. Ultimately, the taxpayer pays for the clean up through even higher council tax," she claimed.
Seven days later another group of travellers appeared on the southern side of Ealing Common and were joined by another group two days later.
Councillor's actions are 'shocking'
However, the chief executive of London Gypsies and Travellers has spoken out objecting to the Conservative councillor's call for a hardline approach.
"A borough wide-injunction order does not offer any solution to the accommodation needs of gypsies and travellers living on roadside encampments, but only pushes families out of the borough to other areas," Debby Kennett said in response.
"The fundamental problem is the lack of caravan site provision. Ealing Council has failed to deliver even one of the 64 pitches [family units] identified as the accommodation need for travellers in 2008.
"It is very concerning to see a local councillor use a petition to drum up local opposition and fuel prejudice against the traveller community."
"We urge Councillor Dabrowska to support the alternative approach of negotiating with traveller communities, this has been proved to reduce council costs and improve the lives of traveller families," she continued.
"Many Ealing residents would have supported this more humane response if they had been presented with an alternative.
"We and other organisations representing gypsies and travellers are happy to advise Ealing on successful approaches."
"The context is that this is about accommodation for families but there is a completely lack of provision coming from the Conservative government," she added .
Should there be a borough-wide injunction?
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"It's shocking how a councillor is fuelling this, we are talking about a whole community. It's blurring the lines, a lot of the community live in houses and run businesses - this wouldn't be said about any other community.
"It is completely unacceptable and should be challenged."
However, she added that the organisation does welcome "the council's statement recognising their duty to carry out welfare checks".
What does Ealing Council say?
In response to the issue an Ealing Council spokesman told getwestlondon : "The council's community safety and environment teams are working together with the police to seek injunctions against those that are illegally settled on Ealing Common.
"We appreciate that this does have an impact on local residents and we try to deal with each encampment as quickly as possible, while we look for longer term solutions."
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Writing for the council's public newsletter , Cllr Ranjit Dheer, cabinet member for community services and safety, said: "Most travellers are peaceful and law abiding.
"However, as in all communities, there are those who fail to respect their surroundings, or local residents, or who are intent on criminal behaviour. Indeed, we have had several instances of commercial fly-tipping, with tonnes of waste being dumped illegally.
"We must legally carry out education, health and welfare checks on the encampment’s residents and we aim to do this within 24 hours of being notified."
What would an injunction do?
The petition explains that an injunction preventing illegal encampments across the borough would act as a greater deterrent to groups of travellers.
It says: "A borough-wide injunction (such as those in place in Essex, Enfield, Bromley, Elmbridge, Dagenham & Barking and Blackpool) would forbid 'named persons' and 'persons unknown' from accessing any green spaces, most commonly parks and sports fields, and [other] public spaces.
"Making any incursion on any of the green spaces named in the injunction would thereby be a contempt of court.
"The advantage of this approach is that those seeking to occupy green spaces illegally cannot simply move to the next green space within that local authority area and are faced with a substantial deterrent in the form of fines, seizure of assets and imprisonment.
"The protracted and expensive injunction procedure for each incursion [is also] replaced by the swifter, more effective, contempt procedure."
The petition adds that extra legal spaces should be created where travellers can go when visiting the borough.
This, it says, could be at the existing site in Bashley Road or elsewhere.
