Residents’ concern over Travellers at Queens Park - Dorset

From the Daily Echo

LEGAL moves are being taken to evict a party of Travellers who have set up camp at Bournemouth’s Queens Park.

Seventeen vehicles moved onto the field near the park’s golf course after a boulder protecting the entrance was removed.

Queens Park councillor Mark Anderson said yesterday: “The residents are concerned that it’s intimidating.

“Some of the more elderly residents haven’t brought their dogs out because they’re concerned about the dogs that are there running around.”

Council officials and the police were working together to deal with the encampment.

Council employees have carried out the needs assessment which the law requires them to do before a camp is moved on.

Bournemouth Borough Council said it was seeking a court hearing as soon as possible.

Travellers at the site yesterday said they were just passing through and intended to stay until today or Wednesday.

They would leave the site clean and tidy, they said. The boulder that was moved before the Travellers arrived on Saturday afternoon had been put there as a security measure following another incursion in 2007.

Staff have been checking security at other council sites in case Travellers move to one of those.

A statement from Gary Josey, the council service director whose brief includes the town’s parks, said: “Our council officers and the police have taken swift action following this recent traveller encampment.

“They will be doing all they can, taking the necessary legal action to move them on as soon as possible. In the meantime our council officers are visiting the site on a daily basis to carry out litter picks and supply the travellers with refuse bags for their waste.”

Queens Park Golf Club was operating as normal.

see also:

BBC - Travellers camped in Bournemouth park face eviction notice