Travellers moved on from Bilston B&Q car park
An illegal traveller camp which set up home at a Black Country B&Q store has been moved on.
The group moved onto the car par park at Spring Vale Business Park off the Black Country Route in Wolverhampton on Sunday.
The council has confirmed the group, which consisted of eight caravans in total, has since left the site.
Wolverhampton councillor Andrew Johnson, who represents the Ettingshall ward, was aware that the camp had arrived at the Bilston superstore.
He said: "Someone had mentioned it to me – I had heard that a group of travellers had moved onto B&Q. They've gone now.
"There's no real sign there were there but there's obviously a bit of rubbish about.
"It's not on public land so it would be the matter of the private owner of the site. They must have acted pretty quickly to get rid of them.
"I can't recall a group moving onto the car park there before. There have been travellers opposite there on the back end of the Urban Village and bollards were put there to combat it.
"It is a common occurrence in Bilston and the Black Country in particular.
"There's work going on in the West Midlands Combined Authority to try and tackle the issues of illegal encampments on a cross-regional basis.
"Even an individual authority can't really have an impact because they don't respect borders, so we think it's best to tackle it on a regional basis.
"I know there is a great deal of joint work between the Black Country councils in order to try and prevent this and provide services travellers can use officially."
It comes after travellers moved onto land nearby destined for Bilston's Urban Village in October last year.
Around a dozen caravans were at on the empty site off the Coseley Road, near the Black Country Route.
There were concrete barriers at the entrance to the site, but the travellers still managed to get on the land.
In February, it was revealed that tough new powers to tackle illegal encampments at the playing fields in Penn could be brought as frustration continues to build over travellers moving onto the site.
Council bosses want injunctions brought in to protect sites as well as holding discussions with other councils in the region which have already got tough on tackling the problem.
