Businesses are being warned to urgently guard their car parks from travellers looking for a new site to set up camp.

Timber merchant Arnold Laver issued the warning as an injunction goes through the courts to remove 15 caravans camped on its Canal Road car park since Monday

An Arnold Laver spokesman said: "The company is going through the normal legal channels and it's expected they will be removed from that car park at the beginning of next week.

"We would recommend that all people with open spaces which are not protected during the weekend, which would be suitable for gipsies to move on to, takes care to monitor them. They have got to go somewhere in Bradford."

The spokesman added that the legal fees and six-month injunction were costing about £1,000 and the clean-up operation by Bradford Council after the travellers' removal would cost a further £42 an hour.

The spokesman said the firm had spoken to the gipsy liaison officer and the police and appreciated that they were itinerant people who needed somewhere to go.

But, he said, that particular car park was leased to other firms for their office workers to use and Arnold Laver was unable to fulfil their contract to those firms while they were parked there.

The travellers had previously been on one of Bradford's busiest car parks in George Street. They left on Sunday, only hours before an eviction notice obtained by the Council came into force.

Bradford Council has had to apply to the county court five times in the last six months to regain possession of its land from travellers.

The authority has two official gipsy sites which have a total of 48 pitches - 29 at Mary Street, Bowling Back Lane, and 19 at Esholt.

Officers say the sites are usually full and have a waiting list of people wanting to move on to them.

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