Angry scenes at traveller camp
[gallery] Travellers hurled missiles at council workers sent to clean up an illegal camp in Staffordshire – as more caravans moved on to another site in the Black Country.
Workers were pelted with excrement in the angry scenes branded 'absolutely disgusting' by Staffordshire council chiefs.
In Walsall, more than half a dozen caravans have moved on from a site in Walstead Road where action is being taken against them – and gone across the road.
Walsall is currently being plagued by a string of illegal traveller camps
Earlier this week travellers moved onto the car park of the landmark King Arthur pub in Dudley and were moved on by police.
The council workers came under fire when they went to tidy the site where around a dozen caravans had illegally set up camp at playing fields in Heather Close, Brereton, Rugeley, two weeks ago.
Today a huge clean-up operation was continuing to get rid of piles of rubbish including tyres and refuge bags left on the site.
Residents said they were plagued with noise late into the evening at the former football pitch. A court order i was handed over to the travellers on Wednesday which sparked the angry scenes.
Cannock Chase Council owns the land and filed for a repossession order after the travellers ignored an eviction notice.
Leader George Adamson said: "It is absolutely disgusting that hard-working council officers who are pulled away from the duties taxpayers pay for them to do should then be pelted with excrement by these filthy individuals. I am told the amount of rubbish left on the site is huge and it could take up to three days to clear."
In Walsall, the council had been seeking an order to remove the travellers from their original site in Walstead Road at magistrates court yesterday. But the caravans, moved over to fields belonging to Handsworth Rugby Club.
