Travellers playing "cat and mouse" with Croydon Council - London

From the Croydon Advertiser

TRAVELLERS who drove around 20 caravans onto South Croydon Recreation Ground at the weekend were moved on by the council - only to set up camp elsewhere.

The group - believed to have been involved in another illegal camp in Lion Green Road, Coulsdon, last week - left the South Croydon site but, by yesterday (Thursday) they had split between Waddon Marsh Road and Lloyd Park.

Croydon Council said it had a court order for the Waddon group and would be seeking to evict them, with the same action taken at Lloyd Park by Friday.

The camps have led council leader Mike Fisher to reiterate the importance of the council's new efforts to rid the borough of illegal sites using injunctions against named families.

Legal advisers are finalising proposals for an injunction which would be put before the High Court. If granted, any breach would be an arrestable offence.

Cllr Fisher said this week: "This cat-and-mouse game we have to play when Travellers move from one illegal camp to another down the road is not helpful to anybody.

"It means that once we have gone through the process of moving them, we have to go through the whole rigmarole again a few days later when they turn up somewhere else."