Travellers avoid eviction from Hull City Council land by moving a few yards down Haltemprice Street

From the Hull Daily Mail

TRAVELLERS have moved just a matter of yards to avoid being thrown off council land immediately.

A group of about 25 to 30 caravans set up on land close to Haltemprice Street in west Hull on Friday.

But the land on which the Travellers arrived is already subject to an immediate possession order and bailiffs were due to throw them off yesterday.

Now, they have moved to the nearby Amy Johnson site, part of a housing regeneration scheme, which is not under the order.

This means, for the third time in just a few weeks, Hull City Council is having to turn to the courts to throw the Travellers off.

Hull City Council's head of physical regeneration Laura Carr said: "The eviction notice was in place for the Haltemprice site.

"However, over the weekend, the Travellers have moved on to the Amy Johnson site, which is council-owned land.

"We now have started the legal process to obtain an eviction notice and hope to obtain this from the courts imminently."

The Amy Johnson site is now the fourth area the Travellers have moved to in as many weeks.

They first arrived at Millport Drive on the Boothferry estate a few weeks ago before heading to land close to Kelvin Hall School, off Bricknell Avenue, in west Hull.

At the start of last week, they moved to the site of the former Lambwath School, off Saltshouse Road, east Hull.

They arrived at Haltemprice Street on Friday before moving to their current location.

Travellers have been criticised for leaving a mess, with residents claiming human excrement has been left on the sites they have vacated.

The council moved quickly to secure the Lambwath School to ensure no more travellers could get on.

Hull City Council has cleared the land and has installed a chain and padlock. A rubble mound has also been put in place.

The influx of Travellers in the city has coincided with Brigg Horse fair, which took place at the weekend.

At the weekend, council workers cleared away rubbish on the Kelvin Hall site and secured it.

About 50 caravans remained at the council-owned land at Kelvin Hall for about two weeks after moving from the Boothferry Estate.

They only left after Hull City Council sought an Immediate Possession Order (IPO) to remove the group from its land.

The Travellers defended their conduct.

One traveller, who only wished to be called Lucy, previously told the Mail: "This is our way of life.

"If one Traveller does something wrong then we all get tarred with the same brush.

"We don't leave human excrement, we use public toilets and pub toilets.

"When we move, we try to leave the site as clean as we can."

see also The Yorkshire Post - Hull Travellers up sticks again just ahead of bailiffs