Travellers invading local park.

And it always seems worse in summer somehow.

It’s disgraceful and really shouldn’t be allowed..

Happened near us last week, the children’s public paddling pool had to be closed, emptied and refilled, people were washing and defecating in it.
Section 61 invoked by council/police to move them, now they’re a few miles away to make more mess.

I agree it's a disgrace. My council spend £1,000 a month cleaning up after them. The money could be spent on better things

They are moved on within a very short time here why don’t the police move them on from your park ?
It’s a shame because most are not bad people but they all get tarred with the same brush and a lot are not travellers at all but modern day drop outs
Real travellers and Romany s have much higher standards

We used to get them a lot but our council did a lot of work building earth humps around our local green spaces and put wooden posts into the ground in lots of places to stop access to open space it works really well and illegal incursions happen rarely now.

We do have a designated space for travellers with facilities, it is empty.

I find that astonishing! Having worked with the gypsy and traveller community the half a dozen places I liaised with were always full.

Roughly where are you, Sago?

No one is saying that these are bad people but, like all of us, they must keep within the law and it’s shocking that we have to pay to clear up after them. In the past they have been on the common near my house and left it in a disgusting state. Also while they’re there the antisocial behaviour prevents others from enjoying the area in the summer. I wouldn’t mind them coming if they just occupied a small section and moderated their noise and their language. We could “live and let live” with these people but not while they cost us so much money and stop us from enjoying our neighbourhood.

Many many years ago my parents run a public house only to find a good dozen travellers were in the car park one morning.
My father told them to move on before the pub opens,they told him in typical gypo language to f... off
Big mistake.
The locals turned up with a large box of matches and gave them minutes to start shifting,or teh vans will be set alight,and they soon shifted.

Travellers seem to think they are entitled to continue their traditional life style in a transformed world where all public open spaces are scarce and costly to maintain. Many people would love to travel like a romantic old style gypsy but they know this is no longer possible.

Infuriating for the locals. I don't know why the authorities can't take action.

The majority of Irish travellers I worked with were housed in part of a large estate of council housing. It was close to the area their ancestors had stopped at when travelling was still possible. Families shared a trailer and travelled largely between June and September. Local schools were accepting and ran literacy, numeracy classes for parents, aunts, carers mist of whom left school at 11, if they’d attended at all.

Like every community, there were lovely people and less lovely. Families looked out for each other. It was vanishingly rare for children to need foster care

You have my sympathy. This time of year two years ago, travellers moved onto land next to the estate where my son lives.

It was the start of an absolute nightmare for him and the other residents whose houses were closest to the camp, the start of several months of antisocial behaviour, threats of violence, damage to vehicles and property, thefts in broad daylight from back gardens, the dumping of electrical appliances and other unwanted item into the canal that ran between the 'camp' and the houses, untaxed vehicles coming and going at all times of the day and night ... .

I could go on, but unless you have experienced it, you probably can't begin to imagine the stress that it caused, people fearing what might happen in the night, that their (or their children's) bedroom window might get a brick through it, or fearing that something will have happened to their home while they were out. There were times when my son was so scared by what was happening that he would ask me to have our 2 year old GD for the night.

Regular police patrols started, but of course they only had any effect while the police were actually there!

As for the mess that was left behind, it is still being cleared now, more than 18 months after the travellers finally got moved on.

BlueBelle

They are moved on within a very short time here why don’t the police move them on from your park ?
It’s a shame because most are not bad people but they all get tarred with the same brush and a lot are not travellers at all but modern day drop outs
Real travellers and Romany s have much higher standards

It is just a guess, but maybe where you are there might already be injunctions (if that's the right word) in place, meaning that people can legally be moved off very quickly.

Based on how long it took to get such measures in place after the travellers were moved from the place I mentioned above, it seems to be a very long process!

BlueBelle

They are moved on within a very short time here why don’t the police move them on from your park ?
It’s a shame because most are not bad people but they all get tarred with the same brush and a lot are not travellers at all but modern day drop outs
Real travellers and Romany s have much higher standards

The council need a court order to move them on...not eaily available on a weekend ....our local.park solved the problem with bollards .....the travellers never came again after installing them around 8 years ago

On our local news, a school has to cancel its Sports Day because travellers had pitched up on their ground!

No doubt some are fine but my direct experience says otherwise. The common in front of our house was occupied by travellers for about six weeks until the Council managed to get a court order and they moved on but they left a massive amount of old tarmac, junk, rubbish, etc., behind for local services to clear up. And their kids stole from our gardens and were seen driving cars on the common.

Too many well-meaning do gooders defend them without ever experiencing the havoc they cause.

I find it annoying as well. Why should our money go to cleaning these places up? The police are scared stiff of them and they run lawless around this country. I am sick of hearing about the do gooders standing up for them. Also stop all of these programmes about them because it just glorifies them.

Its racist, unfair and incorrect to say all the gypsy travelling community are lawless. Like every other community, there are good and bad. Saying this isn’t based on not recognising the lawless way some behave, it’s based on working closely in several travelling communities.

We don't tend to hear about these 'good' travellers. The other ones are a blight on the communities they foist themselves on to. I feel very sorry for the people who live in fear of them and have to cough up to pay for clearing the mess they leave behind.

They smashed through a padlocked gate to playing fields a few miles from here, within days it was covered in rubbish, used nappies, faeces and toilet paper. Kids were driving transit vans around, racing each other.
I bet if any of us did that we’d be rightfully prosecuted and fined - the police did nothing.
As soon as they were moved on, the newly replaced gates were again driven through and there’s an even bigger group there. They’ve uprooted/sawn down trees and chopped them up for bonfires, the playing fields are wrecked.
Many people used to access them for sports a dog walking, no more.
Just who the hell do these people think they are?

We have them in our local parks too OP, in fact a couple of our corner shops had to shut for a few days due to previous episodes of shoplifting - it was cheaper than being robbed.

They even go to school playing fields and the university park, breaking the preventive barriers, pleading ignorance. Lately they seem to be moved on more quickly.

It's a bit like football hooliganism of the 70s - clubs denying responsibility - but if they attach themselves to your community it is your responsibility isn't it? They say it's just a few of them, but if they leave rubbish, tatty old sofas (which is the least of it), have feral children and threatening dogs, then how can they expect us to welcome them?

The law needs to be changed to help the law-abiding majority (as I believe it was in Ireland - which is why they've come here) so that we can nip this problem in the bud.

A few years ago they broke through the gates of the school playing field behind our block of flats. Literally behind our private car park.
It was without doubt one of the worst few days of my life. We didn't open our blinds for the whole time they were there.
The noise, the rubbish, the bikes at all times of the day and night.
Local shop keepers had lots of things stolen, mainly by young children.
It took three days to get a court order to remove them and then the big clear up began.
Our local council has now put bollards up and grass verges to deter them from moving onto local green land.
I'm afraid I don't have a good thing to say about any of them.

Iam64

Its racist, unfair and incorrect to say all the gypsy travelling community are lawless. Like every other community, there are good and bad. Saying this isn’t based on not recognising the lawless way some behave, it’s based on working closely in several travelling communities.

Not racist, all the travellers I have come across are white, people are not against their skin colour, it could be prejudice, and some maybe ok, but the posters are talking about the people who illegally camp on public spaces and peoples land and leave a disgusting mess. Silly to say posters are being racist.