Travellers are believed to have trashed mobile toilets given to them by Leeds City Council following complaints they were using hedges when they needed to "do their business".
An angry resident has labelled the scenes as "an absolute terrible fiasco". He also called the council a “joke” as the authority has spent money to accommodate the travellers and not set up adequate deterrents to keep them off the land.
The travellers have camped out on Red Hall Playing Field, close to Shadwell and Scarcroft. Reports suggest the same group has been there multiple times and each time have been ejected by the council.
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The council has issued a court summons for August 25. The local authority provided the toilets to "minimise any environmental impact" left by the travellers.
Travellers most recently arrived last Thursday (August 18), with the wooden barricade designed to keep people from driving in sawn through. The “frustrated” resident, who frequents the petrol station nearby to buy his newspapers and who wanted to remain anonymous, was left disgusted by the mess.
The retired entrepreneur said: “They just do their business in the shrubbery and everything, they make an absolute mess of the place. It’s an absolute terrible fiasco. The council is responsible for all the land they own.
“They’ve put some more toilets on there and they’ve actually thrown them all onto their sides and appear from a distance to have been vandalised. All five of them were on the ground and two have been picked back up. They’re still lying down with all their ‘stuff’ spilled over. The whole thing is a joke.”
He’s claimed travellers made camp there in April 2021 and in July previously, and the council previously ejected them and set up mobile toilets in the past. He’s called the expenditure on this “irresponsible” and has called for more effective deterrents.
He said: “The council are totally irresponsible. They’ve put a ten-inch ten square section wooden barricade across and that was never going to deter them. The travellers have sawn straight through it.
“They should have large boulders there to stop them going on the site. So now we’re having to go through this whole rigmarole.
“They’ve got a duty to protect their own land and not allow this to go on! I feel extremely frustrating, the council are not doing their job properly and it’s costing us a fortune. Our council tax is just being wasted. I feel frustrated for the neighbours and everyone else who’s got to put up with it.
“The disgusting thing is the council have had to go to court all at the expense of putting these toilets on the site and they’ve made an absolute mess of it. There’s other local residents who use it for dog walking and they are frightened to go there now.”
A Leeds City Council spokesperson said: “The Local Authority are aware of this site, proceedings have been issued with a court date of August 25. As part of this legal process notification of the court summons needs to be visible to the group.
"Toilet and refuge facilities have been provided to minimise any environmental impact”
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