Poole council criticised for not protecting ‘vulnerable’ Hamworthy Park from Traveller camp - Dorset

From the Dorset Echo

THE residents who look after Hamworthy Park say the first Traveller incursion to ever happen there is a “nightmare”.

A councillor has now called for a permanent site and Poole council will be returning to court to evict the new camp.

“This is our worst nightmare,” said Pat Bullock, chairman of the Friends of Hamworthy Park of the first invasion by Travellers on to the popular Green Flag park, which hosts the borough’s only paddling pool.

And she hit out at the council for not protecting the vulnerable park. “They have never bothered with the park. This is always something we have feared.”

She said she always complained about the access gate being left unlocked, but the Travellers had taken out a post and used the emergency exit at the car park to drive across the grass to the eastern end of the park.

“They must think they are on the Costa del Sol with the paddling pool and the sea,” she said.

Cllr Judy Butt, who lost her cabinet portfolio post in February after standing up for residents opposing a summer Traveller transit site in her Creekmoor ward, said it was essential that a permanent site was found.

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