VILLAGERS in Heysham have threatened to take the law into their own hands if the police fail to stop another traveller invasion. The threat of vigilante action was made at a Police & Community Forum on Tuesday, where angry villagers accused police of abandoning them in their hour of need. Residents claim their Christmas holidays turned into a living nightmare when 60 traveller families set up camp in the village in December. But the local police have appealed for restraint and assured residents that they will be ready to act if the travellers return.

"We have learnt from what happened," said Act Ch Insp David Langley.

"We are looking closely at trying to gather more intelligence as the travellers often use different strategies. There is a very large gypsy population in the area and we try to respond to events as quickly as we can. We cannot put up road blocks and when they come in large numbers there is a problem."

He added: "We are working closely with the council to prioritise areas where we feel they might occupy again and engineers are looking at ways to block access on certain sites."

Eric Briggs of Heysham Neighbourhood Council told the police how the travellers caused a lot of trouble in the village over the festive season.

"There was a lot of anti-social behaviour and a breach of the peace but there were no police around. They seemed to abandon us completely," he said.

Another villager added: "While the travellers were here I heard them bragging about how they could easily avoid the authorities."

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