OFFICIALS are taking seriously the threat posed by bands of gypsies to Oswaldtwistle's White Ash Playing Fields.

Ward Councillor Peter Britcliffe and Edgar Bignell, Hyndburn's director of community services, met at the site shortly after a group had moved on.

Coun Britcliffe said: "Gypsies return to this site every four or five months and it has become a real problem.

"The residents are fed up. None of them wants their name in the paper because they don't want repercussions, but they're very angry at the high cost of cleaning up after gypsies and the nuisance they cause.

He added: "They want some way of preventing these travelling groups getting on to the site again."

Mr Bignell said the procedure for moving gypsies from unauthorised sites had become more difficult and it was now necessary to go through the courts to get an eviction order.

He added: "We have provisions for gypsies in Hyndburn, such as a site at Huncoat, so we should have no obligation to them.

"But since the law was changed about 12 months ago, it takes much longer to move them on and involves more council officers."

John Davey, environmental health officer, said: "Gypsy camps are a recurring problem on White Ash Playing Fields and, unfortunately, there is no cost-effective way of preventing them from getting on to the site.

"If we put up fencing there, we would have to put it on every piece of land in the borough. It's just not economically viable."

He added: "The government are throwing this problem back at us because they've cut the cash we can use for providing gypsy sites.

"It's a problem without a solution."

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