WORRIED residents are demanding action to remove an encampment of travellers from a Poole car park.
Vehicles pulled into Beach Road car park, at Branksome Chine, during Tuesday evening.
On Wednesday, at least a dozen vehicles remained at the makeshift camp, including a quadbike being ridden by what appeared to be young children.
Branksome Park & Canford Cliffs Residents Association chairman John Sprackling said: “There are concerns locally, we obviously want them to move on as quickly as possible.
“We had travellers on the same car park back in 2008 and they didn’t cause too much mess.
“Back then we asked Poole council to install height restriction barriers at the Beach Road and Western Road car parks. However, this never happened.”
Five traveller vehicles, that earlier set up in a Bournemouth town centre car park, left hours before the latest encampment formed in Branksome.
It is not known if some of these travellers are one and the same.
A Branksome resident, who asked not to be named, told the Echo: “Hopefully, they won’t be in this car park for too long.
“Its pretty worrying for locals and we hope we don’t develop a situation where numbers grow and grow.
“At the moment the car park has practically been taken over – I cannot see any visitors feeling confident enough to leave their cars there until these travellers have left.”
Borough of Poole team manager Jeff Morley confirmed 10 traveller caravans and one motor-home had moved into the car park.
He added: “Council officers visited the site today to provide refuse sacks, assess the behaviour of the travellers and reduce any impact they may have on the local area.
“We will continue to make daily visits and will liaise with local residents and members to address any concerns.”
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