Whenever travellers pitch up on unauthorised sites they’re generally met by suspicion, indignation or fear from the wider public.

It’s a gut-reaction that would appear to be justified in light of this week’s news that a school is paying hundreds of pounds to clean up human waste left by travellers on its grounds. “They’re a misunderstood group, but sometimes they are their own worst enemy,” says Bradford Council environmental health manager Jim Aveyard.

Travellers have been pitching caravans at locations around the district over the last ten days. Last week the Telegraph & Argus reported that Bradford Council took legal action to evict families camping at Thompson Lane, Baildon, near Glenaire Primary School. They moved to Shipley’s Redbeck playing fields, then on to Green Lane, Baildon.

The Thompson Lane site was cleaned by Council contractors but Glenaire Primary School headteacher Andrew Soutar said human waste had been left on the school field, which had to be cleared up using school funds.

Yesterday the T&A reported that travellers in Steeton railway station car park had five caravans, a tent and several wagons taking up about 20 parking spaces. Car park owner Northern Rail is looking at its options.

There are two official travellers’ sites in Bradford district – Bowling Back Lane and Esholt Lane – with 47 fully-occupied pitches. There are waiting lists for both sites.

Mr Aveyard, whose role as environmental health manager covers gipsy liaison, says there’s a national shortfall of pitches, with 96 more needed in West Yorkshire.

Many travellers camping at unauthorised sites have official pitches elsewhere in the country, but because their lifestyle is transient they set up temporary camps as they travel around.

“Often all they leave is a circle of cropped grass, which the horses have eaten. I’ve seen travellers tidying sites – it’s not always the case that they leave rubbish behind,” he says.

“While business is good, they hang around, then they move on. Travelling is their way of life,” says Mr Aveyard.

“They fall into two categories; gipsies, who are Romany, and travellers, often of Irish descent. There is good and bad in the travelling community, just as there is in every community, but people lose sight of that. After centuries of persecution, it’s perhaps understandable that travelling people are wary of others.”

A criticism often aimed at local authorities is the time it takes to evict travellers, but Mr Aveyard says this depends on the courts.

“Trespassing is a civil offence so we go through the county court. We have to give the travellers 48 hours’ notice of the court hearing date, and that notice doesn’t include weekends,” he says.

“We’re also required to do welfare assessments of each family in the camp – a big job if there are 30 families. Once we’ve been to court we get a possession order which we deliver on site. Usually the travellers leave fairly quickly; we try to be reasonable and tend to find that if we’re fair with them they’re fair with us.

“The whole process usually takes about five days, depending how busy the courts are.”

The Council advises landowners on evicting travellers from private land. “It’s a similar process to local authority land, except private landowners don’t have to do welfare assessments,” says Mr Aveyard.

Last year a Gipsy History event took place in Centenary Square, and earlier this year there was an information event with stalls, traditional Romany caravans, music and dancing on Baildon Green, organised by the Council and gipsies from the Esholt site.

Mr Aveyard says: “There are myths and misconceptions,” he says. “People often don’t realise that travellers on authorised sites pay council tax. They pay rent and power, they have an address and have post delivered.

“The ones living on our two sites are registered with a GP and their children attend local schools. If needed, we have access to public health nurses who visit sites for immunisations. In effect they’re living on a mini housing estate.”