TRAVELLERS have moved onto Poole's Baiter Park for the third time this summer.

The unauthorised encampment, with more than ten caravans and associated vehicles, is just yards from the site of a popular family weekend event, the Poole Harbour Festival, which is scheduled to start on Friday.

Festival organiser Ben Dyas told the Daily Echo: "The council have told us they should be able to take action to remove them because of the event, and some of them have moved off already.

"I'm not too worried, they are nowhere near the event site, they are the other end of the park.

"All of our site is fenced off and they should be evicted by the weekend.

"I'd like to reassure people coming to the festival that these travellers are not going to affect the event in anyway, we have a fenced off arena with full security.

"You cannot even see them once you are inside the arena."

Witnesses told the Echo the travellers drove at speed from the area of the skate park, across the promenade on Wednesday night.

Poole Bay Association chairman Mike Randall said: "The event security guys did their best, they were manning the gates while lorries were coming onto the site to set up, then shutting the gates behind them.

"But then, in the evening, four traveller vehicles arrived alongside the car park, near the slipway.

"They were watching, then suddenly they just shot off, raced around the front and came in a back way, near the skate park, and drove straight along the promenade, across the grass and parked up.

"It was just chaos, tensions got high because I could see some of the security people were hacked off.

"What with the event arena and these travellers, the whole of Baiter is absolutely covered today."

Mr Randall, who has previously complained to Borough of Poole about lack of action on the traveller issue, once again called for tougher measures to remove unauthorised encampments.

He said: "Some councils can get them evicted and moved on within 24-hours, so why cannot Poole? It takes almost a week to get these people off.

"It is about time we got tough with these people."

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