TRAVELLERS are playing cat and mouse with Poole Council as anxious residents wait to see where they will go next.

As Borough of Poole goes to court to seek eviction orders, the groups move on, with one set of Irish travellers moving from Baiter to nearby Whitecliff, while those evicted from Turlin Moor moved to Pelhams Park at Bournemouth.

A party of 15 caravans and two camper vans, some from this group and joined by others, has now set up home at Verity Park, Canford Heath, also council owned land.

The borough secured an eviction order for the group at Whitecliff on this morning and one caravan left the site straight away.

Last Friday the council had to close the play park because of excrement smeared over the equipment.

After the group arrived at Verity Park on Sunday one resident said: “They are already threatening people. It's a total joke and something has to be done to stop this.”

One of the travellers told a Daily Echo reporter not to come back to the site again as “we live here and you don’t”.

One local resident told the Daily Echo it was an “absolute joke”.

“They were here Jubilee weekend last year and we were assured it wouldn’t happen again and now it has”, she said.

“I blame the council for not making the places secure.”

Youngsters were seen driving small motorcycles back and forth on the grass and there are ponies also on the land.

The group all seem to have generators taking power out of a lamppost.

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Another resident from Verity Crescent said: “They have turned it into a no-go area for the children, right at the start of the summer holidays.”

He said a friend walking through the park and been told not to as “this is our land,” while residents who paid their council tax and were entitled to use the park, were not able to.

“I very much doubt we will get a reduction in our council tax,” he said.

Jeff Morley, Borough of Poole regulatory services team manager said they had visited Verity Park and provided refuse sacks.

“We are aware of concerns raised by local residents and will be pursuing legal action at the earliest opportunity,” he said.

“Once the travellers have departed we will be carrying out cleansing of the site, including the play park and making the site secure,” he said.

Boulders have been put around Turlin Moor rec and the council is warning private landowners to ensure their land is secure.

Martyn Underhill, Police and Crime Commissioner for Dorset, has said he will be discussing the issue of travellers with the unitary authorities in the coming weeks.

“I do have sympathy with Borough of Poole and the police, they are very much restricted to what they can do within the law, and the resources that they have,” he said.

“I know how frustrating this is for local people, however, as someone said in one of the many emails I have been monitoring, there are two sides to a coin, and any constructive way forward must include the needs of travellers that come to this beautiful county for the steam fair and other events.”

Joseph Jones, chairman of the Gypsy Council said: “We do not condone any form of anti-social behaviour from the community, but we feel that unauthorised encampments are the outcome of council leadership's failure to provide.”

He warned: “If we are to ignore the problem, it will persist and get worse.”