A FOOTBALL club has had to move its fixtures after travellers parked on football pitches in Bilford Road, Worcester.

The travellers parked on the land near Perdiswell Leisure Centre on Wednesday evening, and the club and Worcestershire County Council are working with police to have them evicted.

Club secretary James Plaskitt said the travellers had damaged a gate to gain access to the site.

He said: “They’ve been using the football pitches as a race track and doing doughnuts, and that’s more criminal damage.”

The travellers' occupation of the playing field means that the Colts will not be able to play up to seven matches there this weekend.

But the club’s opponents’ have come to the rescue, offering their own grounds as the venues for the matches.

Mr Plaskitt said that all the weekend’s fixtures had been salvaged in this way.

This is not the first time Perdiswell has been targeted by travellers this year.

A group arrived at the centre’s car park, on John Comyn Drive, overnight on Friday March 16, and Worcester City Council took court action to have them moved on. Council staff had to remove rubbish bags and human waste.

Nobody from the country council, which manages the football pitches, was available to comment on the latest invasion of public land.