COUNCIL officials and police are being led on the annual summer merry-go-round as travellers are pushed from one park to another.

Travellers used diggers to break through hedges before being moved from Hollingbury Park to East Brighton Park.

Meanwhile Brighton and Hove City Council's new transit site stands empty - due to open next week.

Even when the transit site opens the group of travellers- numbering over a hundred - would be too many to fill the 21 pitches on the new site.

Meanwhile residents are concerned about the damage to parkland - which is increasingly being left in the hands of volunteers to maintain.

A large group of Irish travellers arrived at Hollingbury Park last Friday and more arrived over the weekend until there were around 60 caravans at the park.

On Tuesday a group of men were seen using a digger to break through hedges planted by volunteers at the park.

Travellers at East Brighton Park yesterday told The Argus they had been moved on from Hollingbury Park and had been at Wild Park and Stanmer Park prior to that.

In the last week alone travellers have also been staying at Carden Park, Manor Hill, Sheepcote Valley and 19 Acre Field, Hollingbury Park.

Angry residents posted pictures of the mess left behind at Hollingbury Park and said they had felt intimidated by traveller children using bad language in the children's play area.

The travellers told The Argus they tried to leave parks clean but were unable to access basic facilities such as toilets and bins with the transit site not open.

Mary Connors, 29, said: "We understand the residents. No one wants to walk through a park full of caravans. We are not selfish, but we have no other option."

A spokeswoman for the council said: "Clear up work is being carried out in the Hollingbury Park.

"Council staff carried out a joint visit with police at East Brighton Park yesterday. We will be seeking a county court possession order to move the group, and keep the situation under review in the meantime.

"The Horsdean transit site will open on Monday providing pitches for 21 households. The re-opening of the site means we will be able to use police powers (Section 62a) to direct travellers to Horsdean, where rent and service charges will be payable. If travellers do not move to Horsdean when pitches are available, we will have greater powers to move them from the city."

GANGS OF TRAVELLERS LEAVE DESTRUCTION IN THEIR WAKE

VOLUNTEERS who have been tending a wild flower garden to attract bees and wildlife to a park are assessing the damage to their creation.

This week hundreds of travellers took over Hollingbury Park and used a digger to rip through hedges.

Parents reported traveller children using foul language in the play area and when the group moved yesterday human waste was found at the neighbouring bus stop, there were piles of rubbish and hedgerows were strewn with bottles and cans.

The grass was charred and seagulls were picking apart bin bags.

One member of the friends of Hollingbury and Burstead Woods, who felt too intimidated to be named, said they had “destroyed” the volunteers’ work.

She added: “Our group has also been looking after the meadow for several years and created a bee and butterfly bank at the northern end. The meadow had been looking beautiful just a few days earlier.”

She was using the recycling point at the top of Ditchling Road on Tuesday when she saw a group of men with a digger ripping through the hedge.

She said: “I acted on impulse and jumped out of my car and pleaded with them to stop, but they replied they were “just widening the gap” so they can drive on and off more easily.

“I took some photographs of the digger and driver which made them camera shy and they retreated, but not before another traveller who had been watching made threatening remarks. I decided that I would lock myself in my car and called 999. The police responded quickly but by the time they arrived the digger and driver had disappeared.”

On Wednesday, Brighton and Hove City Council obtained a section 61 court order forcing the travellers to leave. They immediately moved to another city park, East Brighton, where one traveller told The Argus he was arrested on suspicion of breaking through the park’s gate, a charge he faces no further action on and unequivocally denies.

As the travellers move from park to park the city’s new transit site at Horsdean stands empty. It is due to open next week.

Over a number of years Brighton and Hove has built up a reputation as a destination for travellers during the summer months.

But the travellers say while they would happily stay at Horsdean there would not be enough room.

Kathleen West, 36, said: “There should be more transit sites, but the most you are allowed to stay on them is three months.

“We would go to the transit site if they had a space but it’s already full. We’ve been told there’s a waiting list.

“Brighton is a popular destination for travellers as it is a meeting up place.

“It’s nice to find somewhere with proper toilets and showers.

“We do face a lot of discrimination as travellers. We get called this, that and the other.

“People say we’re filthy but we keep our homes clean – we have to live, eat, sleep and everything in this small caravan.”

Another traveller Mary Connors, 29, said they had no choice but to live in these circumstances, which resulted in their children being unable to regularly attend school or access healthcare.

The group has already been told they will be moved on again by the end of the week. They argue that if they were allowed to stay on a single site for longer it would cause less damage to the grass with less moving around, and leave other parks intact while enabling them to enrol their children in school.

“We don’t choose this,” she said.

“Most of our children can’t read or write.

“They barely get a few days in school a year.

“If our kids aren’t in school they are never going to be able to improve their lives.

“I can’t read or write so I can’t teach them.

“We just keep to ourselves. People can still use the parks. We don’t act like we own them.”

The Horsdean site is due to open on Wednesday next week.

Staff at the site yesterday said there had been delays but travellers had been arriving regularly to see when they would be able to move onto the 21 transit pitches.

The 12 permanent pitches opened earlier this summer are already full.

Another traveller who did not wish to be named added: “They have already picked who is going to get the pitches.

“If you haven’t got a disability or something you’ve got no chance.

“We’ve all got kids so that doesn’t count as an advantage.

“Anyway we want to stay with our family groups and if we can’t all go together then we’d rather go somewhere else.”

The reopening of the transit site will give the police and council more power to move travellers from parks and other green spaces.

But opposition councillors had already warned last month that the 21 pitch transit site might not be sufficient during the busy summer.

In addition the council has introduced new powers which should make it easier to move travellers from 12 specific parks across the city. However, they will not come into effect this year.

PSPOS ACTIVE AT THE END OF YEAR

NEW powers will enable police and the council to move antisocial travellers more swiftly from 12 city parks However, the New Public Space Protection Orders (PSPOs) agreed by councillors in July, are not likely to be active until the end of the year.

The delay to the introduction of the powers, the first time nationally the PSPOs have been used in connection with travellers, will allow council officers to receive training and for signs to be placed around affected areas.

The 12 sites where the orders will be applicable are Greenway (adjacent to railway New England Quarter), Hollingbury Park, Lawn Memorial Cemetery in Woodingdean, Preston Park, Rottingdean Recreation Ground, the seafront including the A259 from Black Rock to Hove Lagoon, Sheepcote Valley and East Brighton Park, St Helens Green, Stanmer Park, Surrenden Field, Waterhall, and Wild Park.

The newly opened permanent traveller site has 12 pitches with space for a static caravan and other vehicles with a kitchen, bathroom and lounge in an adjoining amenity block.

The transit site has 21 pitches.