JOHN Beirne is calling for St Helens Council to hand out fines to travellers who leave residential areas resembling bomb sites when they are moved on.

The Marshalls Cross Liberal Democrat councillor says the most recent incident took place in Egerton Road and Gower Street, Sutton, where a number of travellers were encamped on a nearby field.

Although they were eventually moved on after an eviction notice was served, Councillor Beirne says the surrounding area was left looking "disgraceful - an appalling mess."

He added: "One woman who lives in the area phoned me and said she had just looked out of her back window to be confronted with a pony who was eating the grass in her garden! It had obviously wandered off from the camp and it's just getting beyond a joke now.

"When these travellers are finally moved on, it's then left to council tax payers to foot the bill for the clean-up of the area. Like everyone else in the town, I am totally fed-up with these people getting away with it.

"The council needs to set an example. If by-laws don't already exist then new ones should be drawn up which benefit the local community and penalise those who show no regard for others."

But a council spokesperson said: "Legislation is already in place and is used both by the council and the police to deal with problems caused by travellers. It's the very lifestyle of travellers which makes any legislation difficult to enforce.

"An innovative and new way ahead being promoted by the authority is a multi-agency approach with the police to tackle issues such as these. Following on from this, we are looking at making as many sites as possible inaccessible to travellers.

"This authority was one of the first to establish a traveller site at Sherdley Park. If other councils acted in the same responsible manner and provided such a site, there would not be the problems there are now."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.