Posted on 05/25/2010 1:50:18 PM PDT by dennisw
A group of travellers has set up camp with 30 caravans in a school's playing field, forcing hundreds of children to stay at home.
Education bosses immediately set up an exclusion zone at Smithills School, Bolton, after the extraordinary convoy moved in on Sunday evening.
Around 300 Year 8 pupils have been told to work from home because their classrooms are next to the playing fields and it was feared the travellers' presence could cause disruption to classes.
Police were due to speak to the group last night to inform them that trespass, which is normally a civil offence, is elevated to a criminal offence when it is carried out on a school premises and causes disruption.
This would give the police the power of arrest if the travellers refused to move on.
Sgt John Nicol, of the Bolton West Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: 'We take this very seriously and are taking positive action to ensure the smooth running of the school.'
The police action would override a move by Bolton Council officers who were due to visit the travellers yesterday to give them a direction to leave the land.
The direction gives them 24 hours to leave. If they do not, the council can apply for a summons from magistrates.
The travellers were given notice to leave a local park by Bolton Council after the caravans appeared near the main entrance, off Moss Bank Way, on Monday night.
The travellers' latest move has caused concern among local residents.
One said: 'I saw all the caravans through the trees when I do not understand it. The school always has football and cricket matches on. What are they doing with all those vehicles there?
'I know they come to Moss Bank Park quite often, but not on a school field.'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
gypsies?
"Hey you kids, get offa my lawn!"
I've never understood the basis of Europe's tolerance of "squatters".
Tramps and thieves?
Gypsies? Tramps and fleas, at least the people of the town call them that :-0
Could be gypsies, but there are also “Irish travellers”.
BYW, Irish Travellers have been running the driveway repaving scam in the U.S., especially in the Boston area.
Oh, Ingtar was both quicker and more accurate :-(
gypsies?>>>>>>>
The British equivalent thereof but I believe they are all of Irish extraction. Not darker the way you think of gypsies. Travelers can camp in many places in England so it seems. Even in special green preserve land and make a mess of it. I don’t understand the the phenomena and why the Brits cater to them
I guess we have a PC term for gypsies now.
Irish Travelers call themselves “Gypsies.”
I’ve never understood how this is tolerated in England...well, yeah, we all wonder about English “tolerance”.
yes! They were all over in Ireland when we lived there, and that was 20 years ago.
“travellers” = gypsies? I would think it wouldn’t be too hard for law enforcement to make them move elsewhere. But my impression of “law enforcement” in Europe is that they are pretty spineless.
I don't understand the phenomena of third world invaders camping in our country and why Americans cater to them either.
Maybe if the Brits would just allow them to take over their schools and neighbors, they would stop travelling. < / sarcasm >
South Florida periodically gets a Scottish version of the travelers, the Terrible Williamsons. They swarm over a city with all sorts of roofing and driveway scams and all types of theft jump up until they move on. I think the Irish and Scot travelers headquarter in the Carolinas somewhere. We get actual Gypsies, too, on occasion, but they come in smaller groups.
they called them “knackers”also.
Thieves is what I called them
Not PC. "Travelers" is a very old term . "Gypsies" is ethnically exclusive. "Travelers" also includes other groups who live the same way, predominantly Irish and Scottish or just "Celtic." There are several large clans based in the Carolinas that fan out over the east and midwest.
There is a school of thought that the Irish Travelers are descended from the people who lived in Ireland before the Celts invaded.
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