Travellers move onto football pitch in Cottage Lane, Shottery

ANOTHER unauthorised traveller encampment has been set up in the area, this time on Cottage Lane football pitch in Shottery.

The group of a dozen caravans plus several vehicles and tents arrived in the early hours of Sunday morning and are camped around the edge of the field.

A resident living nearby, who asked not to be named, told the Herald he was woken yesterday by a “continuous sound of feral dogs barking and other loud noises” coming from the site.

He said: “There’s usually a big farm-style padlocked gate to stop cars going into the field, so I’m not sure how they got their caravans in but I’m dreading the state the football field is going to be left in.

“And I’m wondering who is going to pay for the clear-up?”

He added: “The kids in this neighbourhood are often on the field playing football and with the England women’s team winning the Euros yesterday there’ll be even more who’ll want to have a join in.

“It’s shame that now they can’t go out there and play.”

A spokeswoman for Warwickshire Police said: "We have been made aware of it and we are engaging with both them and our partners at the council."

Several unauthorised traveller encampments have sprung up in and around Stratford during the past 18 months.

Last week, the Herald reported how travellers left a trail of destruction at Marston Playing Fields, Lighthorne Heath, after moving on from an unauthorised encampment.

Park benches and goal posts were smashed and the site was strewn with rubbish, including used condoms and human excrement.

The parish council called in Rentokill and Biffa waste services to professionally clean-up the site.

And Alcester Rugby Club was left with a £5,000 bill for bailiff fees and a major clean-up job following a week-long battle to remove 42 vans and caravans that took over the Birmingham Road grounds in June last year.