Travellers slam this area as most hostile place they have been - Lincolnshire

From the Grimsby Telegraph

TRAVELLERS have described North East Lincolnshire as "the most hostile place" they have been to – but are refusing to leave.

They have branded residents, North East Lincolnshire Council and Humberside Police officers as "racist" after being forced from Weelsby Avenue and onto the edge of a cycle path on the Pyewipe.

Within hours of being there, six-year-old Kathleen Rooney was on a bicycle when she and a man on a bike collided, splitting her head open on the pavement. The man did not stop.

Aunt Theresa Rooney, 22, said: "I have been all over the country and I have never experienced anything like this. Even places like Manchester and Merseyside, which are supposed to be rough, were kinder to us.

"You stop if you hit a child; I say there is a lot of racism in Grimsby and Cleethorpes.

"Who would do that to an innocent child?"

Five other caravans accommodating 17 Travellers belonging to the same group have pitched up on a lane leading to an electricity substation in Hewitts Avenue, Cleethorpes, near Tesco.

Kathleen was taken to Grimsby's Diana, Princess Of Wales Hospital for stitches.

She said : "I shouted 'move' to the man because he was in my way but he didn't.

"My back wheel skidded and I fell off.

"He didn't stop to see if I was okay."

Theresa continued: "We couldn't believe it when we saw her. She was covered in blood, running down the road and crying."

The Travellers plan to take the council to a judicial review after District Judge Daniel Curtis granted permission to remove them from Weelsby Avenue on Wednesday.

On Thursday, NELC served yet another direction to move notice for their current site – the sixth in five weeks.

Police monitored Weelsby Avenue as they left, which residents claim is now littered with rubble, old bikes and gas bottles.

Some had returned to the site after attending the funeral of a fellow Traveller living 200 miles away.

Supporter and local resident Christina McGilligan-Fell, who is also a councillor, was there when they were packing up camp.

She said: "I was taken aback by the reaction displayed unnecessarily by the police during what was a very quiet eviction."

The leader of NELC, Councillor Chris Shaw, dismissed claims of racism.

He said: "We have acted correctly and followed proper legal processes to remove unauthorised encampments from our land.

"The law allows the council to move people on when they set up camp on land without permission. This is the council's policy and the most effective legal course of action available to us."

A Humberside Police spokesperson said: "We have not received any form of complaint made against us and therefore do not want to comment."