Travellers camp on Kingstone field - Yorkshire

From the Barnsley Chronicle

A group of Travellers have set up camp on a playing field at Kingstone where youngsters meet to play football every weekend.

They have moved at least 20 caravans on to the recreation ground off Broadway and strung up washing lines between trees.
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One woman on Linton Close, who did not want to be named, said: "I saw them at the weekend and thought it must be the Caravan Club. It was only when I saw the washing hung up between the tress I realised it must be Travellers."

Another said she believed they had broken a lock on a gate to the park to gain entry.

She added: "There are kids who play football on there most Sundays, it's not fair. What are they going to do now? I don't agree with them being there, they're always going on land where they shouldn't be."

It is thought the Travellers originally settled on Grange Lane at Cundy Cross earlier this week.

The same group then moved to Penny Pie Park, off Dodworth Road, Barnsley, on Sunday evening.

Coun Jack Carr said the Travellers drove their cars at residents and one waved a car jack at them.

He said the group left the park on Monday after being moved on by the council relatively quickly because there is a helicopter landing pad near to the site.

A spokesman for Barnsley Council said: "This group of Travellers has recently encamped illegally within other areas of Barnsley.

"A legal process has begun, with the final decision on the appropriate legal action to be decided at a case conference, and following an encampment visit by a Barnsley Council officer."

• A separate group of Travellers settled in Birdwell last week. One resident said it was believed they were there for an evangelical mission.

He said residents have been clearing up the litter left by the Travellers on Lynham Avenue, Alverley Way and Chilcombe Place which included cigarette packets, cans, sweet wrappers and cleaning up the human waste.

"The field was a squalid mess. Very few children played out on the estate despite the high temperatures as they felt intimidated. Something must be done to stop this becoming a regular event," he said.



They left the site on Sunday afternoon. The police were unable to comment.