Having walked in the vicinity of Wild Park on Sunday, I was horrified to count close to 100 traveller caravans and other live-in vehicles filling the park.

Add to this vans, cars and motorcycles and you can imagine the appalling sight.

For a number of years now the traveller community has taken advantage of the relaxed attitude of Brighton & Hove City Council and Sussex Police towards encampments they set up in public parks.

They realise that normally they will not be moved for at least two weeks and in the case of the ‘new age’ travellers probably a month.

Hence we have the ridiculous situation of them moving from one location to another only to be visited for welfare checks and assessment by the same people who visited them a few weeks earlier.

All this plus the clear up operations which take place when each site is vacated costs the taxpayers of this city tens of thousands of pounds every year.

Surely a strategy could be put in place between the council and the police with co-operation from the County Court whereby the process of moving these groups on could be speeded up, thus making it less appealing for them to use Brighton as their base.

I recall a quote last year in this paper from a traveller along the lines of: “We like coming to Brighton as the council are good to us.”

That said it all.

I would suggest that when Wild Park is eventually cleared it will not be useable for the taxpaying residents of this city for some time.

The surrounding bushes are used as toilets and rubbish dumps making them a health hazard to all.

We have heard frequently about the facility at Horsdean, which seems to stagger from one problem to another. Even with it at full capacity plus the addition, if and when that comes about, it could not accommodate 100 units, and would these people be willing to pay rent and other costs when they can live for free in our parks? I think not.

Dennis Walker, The Meads, Coldean