Bradford's problems with travellers seem to go on and on. Time and again they move on to public land - a school playing field perhaps, or a park or car park - and the Council has to spend much-needed money on legal action to authorise their removal. And when they have moved on, the Council has to spend more money on cleaning up the mess they leave behind.

It has happened again this week. The group of travellers who occupied the Simes Street car park close to the city centre with an illegal camp 11 days ago finally moved out on Monday, three days after the court order was obtained by the Council for immediate repossession of the land.

They left behind them a mess which cost the local authority hundreds of pounds to clear up before the car park could be used again for its lawful purpose: providing parking spaces for the people of Bradford and raising revenue for the Council in the process.

But that has not been the end of the matter. The travellers merely moved across the road and occupied another car park, obliging the Council to go through the whole process again.

These free-loading, unwelcome guests are making fools of the Council and of the law-abiding council taxpayers. Bradford has done its duty by providing official sites for travellers. If they are full, they should look elsewhere.

It is well past time for the law to be changed to allow local authorities to remove illicit camps as soon as they spring up rather than having to endure a time-wasting legal procedure again and again.