Travellers move again

Kirklees Council applied to have 20 caravans moved from Sands Lane playing fields in Dewsbury last Thursday.

The camp left the playing fields the next afternoon, but then moved their vehicles to private land nearby. The land is rented by members of Dewsbury and District Model Aero Club who fly their model planes there.

Club treasurer Bob Brown said: “I’m not trying to be nasty to anybody at the council, but it looked like the travellers had been turfed off their land and on to ours.

“One of our club members contacted the council to get advice, and the council wasn’t nasty, but in that conversation we realised we would not get any help in getting rid of them.”

To add to members’ concerns, they were told that the club would be breaking the law if it did not take action to have the travellers removed within 28 days, as their site does not have the facilities to support a camp.

However, the Model Aero Club does not have the funds to pursue costly legal action.

Mr Brown said: “The council doesn’t help us at all. We have to finance absolutely everything.

“We have to pay for renting the land, insurance, maintaining the fields. We thought we might get a little bit more support really.”

Because the council does not own the land that the club uses, it is not responsible for dealing with any trespassers on it.

A council spokeswoman said: “We’ve been working very closely with the club on this matter and as a result of our joint activity to secure the boundaries of the site, all the travellers have now moved on.”

The club’s safety officer Martin Lynn worked with Kirklees to see that the travellers left on Tuesday.

He said: “The council has no control over where the gypsies go, so if they go on to private land, there’s not a lot it can do to stop them.”