FED UP residents have agreed to pay for security measures out of their own pockets in order to stop travellers from setting up camp at Poole Park.

It comes after a group of travellers set up camp next to the War Memorial on Monday night.

There is also a second unauthorised encampment at Baiter Park.

The site in Poole Park has been labelled as 'shocking and disrespectful' by residents.

The collection of caravans are within 50 metres of the War Memorial.

A number of events were held just last week to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the battle of Passchendaele and the location of the travellers has angered locals.

Residents have set up a crowdfunding page in an attempt to ramp up security measures in the park.

Patrick Leonard, an 85-year-old who has lived in Poole for 60 years, said he was walking through the park on Tuesday evening and was not sure what was going on.

When visiting the area again yesterday morning, Patrick said he could not believe what he was seeing.

"Really I think it's disgusting and very disrespectful. I've lived her a very long time and never seen anything like this in the park," he said.

"I just don't understand how they got into the park in the first place.

"I wasn't aware exactly what was going on when I first saw the caravans there, but this morning I was just completely shocked by it."

Travellers also arrived in Baiter Park in the past week.

The council held a meeting yesterday evening to discuss the recent surge of groups in the area.

Members are being recommended to approve plans to set up sites for the travellers across the borough.

Poole Town ward councillor Mark Howell, who was on the working party set up to look into the issue, said the only site planned in the town centre area would be at the stadium site.

"The site at Poole Park seems to be quite controlled and I did not see any bad behaviour," Cllr Howell said.

"We need to act quickly to agree where these temporary sites are.

"I think there are a number of possible sites put forward, but not in areas like Poole Park or Baiter Park.

"The purpose of this would be to allow the police to move the travellers from these sensitive areas to a suitable place.

"Until we identify these sites the police will not move the groups on."

'We are just being ignored', say residents

Residents in the Poole Park area have offered to fund increased security to counter the growing presence of travellers.

The fundraisers say they have had enough of the mess left behind and have been looking at ways to stop travellers from entering the park.

Resident Graham Hill has launched a crowdfunding page and has already had £1,000 pledged to pay for added security measures near Copse Close.

“What we would like is to purchase four or five large quarry stones which can be placed around the edge of the park entrance near Copse Close,” said Mr Hill.

“Hopefully this would be enough of a deterrent to prevent travellers from being able to get onto the park.

“We have had some real problems with unauthorised encampment in the past and we are just fed up with the fact that nothing has really been done to prevent them accessing the site.”

However Mr Hill said that they have “hit a brick wall” with Borough of Poole. He added: “I have been trying to contact someone at the council about this for months but have just been fobbed off and passed around.”.

“No one seems to want to take this one and I don’t really understand why. We are trying to take the financial barrier away from the council when it comes to traveller encampments at the park but no one seems to want to talk to us about it. We are just being ignored.

“It’s so frustrating because it’s our lives and our surroundings that are affected when a new group of caravans show up.”

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