BOURNEMOUTH and Poole councils have spent in excess of £80,000 dealing with travellers in less than six months.

Since the start of the financial year on April 1, Bournemouth council has spent £46,151 on unauthorised encampments. The figure was already £19,052 between April and the end of July.

Poole has spent £29,500, with an additional £9,000 on 'target hardening'.

The figures were revealed as six caravans moved onto land in Rigler Road, Hamworthy.

Residents allege a group used bolt cutters to access the site near the Twin Sails Bridge on Sunday evening.

Officials at Poole council say they are investigating.

Councillor Pat Oakley, Bournemouth's cabinet member for tourism, leisure and the arts, spoke to the Daily Echo about "rough, wild, drunken criminals" in August after disorder in the town centre was linked to travellers in the Glen Fern Road car park.

Pubs and bars were forced to close early after reports of fights and claims that crowds of people pulled themselves fights during the incident.

Yesterday, he said the cost of dealing with encampments is a "disgrace".

"We shouldn't have to do it," he said.

"We are not protected sufficiently by the law and, as a result, we have to put things in place that are expensive.

"This is taxpayers' money. It's common knowledge that council coffers aren't overflowing.

"If £46,000 is being spent on travellers, that's £46,000 that isn't being spent on adult social care.

"It's money that could make someone's grandparents' lives more comfortable, money that ensures they're being looked after well.

"When there was the incident with the Glen Fern Road car park encampment, it probably cost town centre businesses ten times that as they had to shut down."

This summer alone, travellers have set up encampments at around 20 locations across the conurbation, including Kings Park, the Kingland Road car park and the Sandbanks car park.

Baiter Park was used on three separate occasions.

Cllr Oakley said: "What makes people angry - myself included - is that travellers commit these acts of anti-social behaviour, but if you or I or John Smith down the road were fighting, swearing and taking booze from behind the bar, we'd be arrested and dealt with.

"That just doesn't happen in these cases."

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