Travellers set up camp in Bacup - Lancashire

From the Lancashire Telegraph

TRAVELLERS have returned to make camp at an industrial estate in Rossendale for the second time in a little over four months.

Five caravans and assorted horticultural vehicles turned up on the Heys Street industrial estate in Bacup on Sunday.

Council officials are now preparing to serve a court order on the encampment to remove them from the borough-owned land.

But nearby workers say their arrival has not generated too much disruption at the cul-de-sac site – apart from a collection of dogs accompanying the Travellers.

The Travellers have arrived with a series of kennels and dog runs, and various wildfowl, which have been left on grass verges beside the road.

One worker, who asked not to be named, said: “The caravans have been here before, around four months ago, because it used to be empty and there was no-one around.

“But, to be honest, though you expect some problems, there hasn’t really been any bother, apart from the dogs barking all the time.”

Several of the traders on the industrial estate were relocated from nearby Henrietta Street, in preparation for the construction of the new Morrisons store.

Last night a Rossendale Council spokeswoman said that a welfare check was being carried out on the Travellers on the site by officials.

The outcome of the checks would determine how quickly an order, asking them to vacate the land, could be served, she added.

Travellers have also been frequent visitors to the borough council’s main office complex at nearby Futures Park, over the past two years.