4:40pm Saturday 4th September 2010
By James Rush
Bradford Council was continuing to chase a group of travellers around the district today after they moved to a site in Baildon.
More than a dozen families moved to Green Lane, Baildon, yesterday, after spending a period at Redbeck playing fields, Shipley, following an eviction from Thompson Lane, Baildon.
A few days earlier they moved there from a site about 500 metres away in Coach Road.
Councillor Martin Love (Green, Shipley) said the group was served a short notice to get off Redbeck fields as Shipley Primary School was due to go back today. He said: “They left that in quite a bad state but nothing like what Thompson Lane had been left in.
“They left there on Friday morning and turned up on Green Lane.
“The Council officers told me on Friday that they were already preparing to get them moved off there, but goodness knows where they are going to go next.”
Councillor Love said he was to call for a meeting between Council officers, the police, the area co-ordinators and councillors to discuss a longer-term solution.
He said: “This is taking a disproportionate amount of officers’ time, it’s costing an awful lot to clean up and it’s causing distress and concern to residents.”
Councillor Love said the Council had to bring in an industrial cleaning company to clear the site at Thompson Lane.
Councillor Val Townend (Con, Baildon) said she had been contacted by concerned residents after the group moved to the site off Green Lane.
She said: “The Council are serving them notices and then they are moving on to another site, but I don’t know why they have chosen the Shipley and Baildon area. They are just moving from place to place and they are leaving things in such a mess.”
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