Travellers' caravans leave Stockton and Hopgrove cricket club - Yorkshire

From the Press

OFFICIALS at a York cricket club are waiting to assess the extent of the damage after a group of Travellers drove caravans on to their pitch.

Steve Fraser, secretary of Stockton and Hopgrove cricket club, said about 20 caravans arrived at the Hopgrove playing fields in Malton Road on Saturday night.

He said they had driven across the square, but did not yet know how badly damaged it was. But metal posts holding ropes around the square had disappeared.

He had been told the gates were locked with a padlock and chain when the Travellers managed to gain access to the pitch.

He said a match against York, due to have been played there tomorrow evening, had been re-arranged to take place at York’s pitch at Clifton Park.

The club had not yet decided what to do about another home match, against Hemingbrough, due to take place on the Hopgrove pitch this weekend.

Mr Fraser said another official had phoned North Yorkshire Police over the weekend, only to be told there was nothing the police could do.

However, he said he called yesterday to report an allegation of criminal damage in relation to the padlock and chain, and this was being investigated.

A North Yorkshire Police spokeswoman confirmed a complaint had been made and an officer would visit the site to investigate.

She said police could not remove Travellers from land in such cases. She understood the Travellers were on their way to the Appleby Horse Fair, in Cumbria, next weekend.

The Travellers are thought to have moved to the playing fields after leaving the University of York’s Heslington East campus, where they had been since Thursday after being removed from a site at Poppleton and then refused access to Grimston Bar car park.

A university spokesman said most of the caravans left on Sunday, with the remaining three leaving at lunchtime yesterday.

He said: “Part of the car park at Kimberlow Lane where they were located has been cordoned off to allow cleaning to take place. There is a substantial amount of litter and broken glass to be cleared.”