One of Bradford's permanent gipsy camps has been given a £250,000 facelift.

Using a £199,000 Government grant, Bradford Council - the site's manager - refurbished individual utility blocks serving the Esholt camp's 19 pitches and replaced the high perimeter fence with a lower, more attractive divider.

The Council pitched in the rest of the cash to purchase the site from its previous owners, Yorkshire Water.

As a result the authority was able to extend the fence boundaries to the edges of the land, allowing residents to turn unused scrubland behind their pitches into gardens and play areas.

The Esholt site is one of two gipsy camps managed by Bradford Council, the second being a 28-pitch site in Laisterdyke.

Before the refurbishment, residents had no hot running water and could only bathe by showering.

Bradford Council gipsy liaison manager Steve Knowles said: "We had a consultation with the tenants to prove that it would benefit the people on the site.

"Their only means of hot water prior to the refurbishment was a wall kettle and their only means of bathing was by shower. They did indicate that they would like a bathroom - that they would like to relax in a hot soapy bath."

Mr Knowles said the improvements to the site, which has been a permanent gipsy camp for about 20 years, were a big change for the people living there.

"If you think about it, we take these things for granted, but if you have lived most of your life as a gipsy, and that option is suddenly there, it must be like winning the lottery," he said.

Mum-of-six Susan Price, 33, has lived at the site for 15 years. She said the bathroom had made bedtime much easier but the biggest improvement was the extension of the fence, which allowed her children to play alongside the canal in safety. "For the children, it's been a lot better - there's more garden and it's made it much safer," she said.

Site warden Maggie-Ann Price, 59, whose father helped found the permanent camp, said her grandchildren enjoyed being able to have a bath, rather than having to shower.

She said the new fence was also a massive improvement. "I imagine, before, it would have been like being in a prison camp because the fence was high. Now it's much nicer," she said.

All 19 pitches are taken - and are kept open when the gipsies go travelling. Mr Knowles said a waiting list would be compiled for gipsies wanting to move to the site, which is treated in much the same way as a small Council estate. Residents have to pay council tax and bills.

To celebrate the improvements and let people see the site, a fun day will be held on Saturday, July 7, from 1pm to 4pm.