COUNCIL chiefs and police were last night working to evict this group of travellers who have moved on to the car park of the Richard Dunn sports centre.

About a dozen vehicles set up camp prompting emergency arrangements to keep the centre open to the public.

The latest illegal encampment came as Councillor Val Slater pledged a “firm but fair policy” to remove them.

Last year, the Council had to deal with 26 illegal encampments compared to a recent average of ten a year.

Steve Hartley, the Council’s strategic director for environment and sport, said of the Richard Dunn situation: “We are working with the police with the intention of getting the travellers to move on as soon as possible.

“Meanwhile, we have made arrangements to ensure that the sports centre is still available for use by our customers. We are sorry for any inconvenience suffered by sports centre users and we are working as hard as we can to get the situation resolved quickly.”