Travellers set up camp at roundabout (From Bromsgrove Advertiser)

Travellers set up camp at roundabout

2:30pm Saturday 4th July 2009

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A LARGE group of traditional travellers have set up camp beside a busy Worcester roundabout with more than a dozen horses grazing on a grass verge nearby.

Ten trailers have pitched up just off Norton Drive, St Peter’s, with heavy traffic building up yesterday morning as commuters looked at the unusual site along the A4440 southern bypass.

Sixteen horses were tied up around the site which also had a sign advertising the sale of Jack Russell puppies.

One of the travellers, Pete O’Reilly, said the group had come from an area between Redditch and Bromsgrove and had stopped off on their way to the Big Green Gathering festival in Somerset.

“We always stop off here in Worcester on our way to the festival and will be moving along on Monday,” he said. “The police have already been down to pay us a visit and they were very friendly and chatty.”

St Peter’s Parish Council chairman Ross McFarlane said the travellers set up in the area annually and there can be some positive aspects.

“The horses eat plenty of the grass which helps to keep it short and what comes out the other end keeps it nicely fertilised,” he said. “I don’t have a problem with them living that sort of life style at all.

“The biggest issue we have had in the past is the is the drivers being distracted as they drive past. One year we had three shunts in one day with drivers looking at the trailers and the horses as they come up to the roundabout.

“I am not expecting them to leave much rubbish behind.”

A spokesman for south Worcestershire police said: “We are aware of the travellers, have been out to visit the site and will continue to monitor the situation.”

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