Leader puts record straight over Travellers' stay in car park - Worcestershire

From the Kidderminster Shuttle

WYRE Forest District Council leader John Campion has hit out at critics on The Shuttle website who slammed the authority after Travellers pitched up at car parks in Stourport.

Conservative councillor Mr Campion commented on the website after disgruntled residents blamed the authority for allowing the group to enter the sites.

The Travellers arrived in Vale Road car park last month before moving to Riverside car park days later, where more than 30 caravans were parked. They moved from there on Monday last week.

Shuttle readers claimed the district council was to blame for their arrivalas it had previously removed barriers from the Vale Road car park and “opened the overspill gates up on the riverside car parks immediately after Vale Road was vacated”.

Jon Cooper posted:“[Thedistrictcouncil] should never have taken the barriers down in Vale Road which were originally erected to stop the previous problem of HGVs and vans entering the car park.”

Regarding the Travellers entering the Riverside car park, he added: “Some people think the travelling community forced their way in–they certainly did not–it was WFDC who freely opened the gates. And don’t think for one moment that they were opened because it was a bank holiday.”

He added the“final hypocrisy”was that civil enforcement officers returned to the car park after the Travellers had left to look for “easy prey”.

MrCampion hit back, saying there had been a lot of “incorrect information passed around”.

He added:“WFDC street scene and civil enforcement were actively engaged with the Travellers when on Vale Road and on the Riverside. WFDC was using the court system to deal with the contravention of the parking order on Vale Road before the Travellers moved.

“WFDC did not open the Riverside gates to ‘let the Travellers in’. The gates were opened as part of the normal preparations for a bank holiday, which is in response to previous criticism when it is believed we haven’ t opened them soon enough.

“WFDC staff including civil enforcement were on the Riverside all over the weekend, actively managing a difficult situation, ensuring visitors could park. They were not ticketing visitors or Travellers, they were dealing with the situation.When the Travellers left, they didn’t set about ticketing visitors.”