Travellers set up on Walsall car park used by funeral-goers

Around 10 caravans pulled onto the Wakes Ground car park, which has been described as a 'key part' of the town by Councillor Ian Shires, yesterday morning.

Councillor Shires said he is concerned about the knock-on effect the travellers will have for users of the space.

He also claims that when he parked his car on site earlier this week, his dust caps were stolen.

He said: "This is creating all sorts of havoc in Willenhall. The Wakes Ground car park is usually full to capacity at pretty much all hours and these travellers are taking up around a third of that now.

"It is used by shoppers going into town, by truckers and by funeral-goers at the nearby St Giles church, so there is the potential for all sorts of unsatisfactory things to happen here and for local councillors it is causing a lot of complaints.

"I parked on there the other day and I was only away from my car for 45 minutes, when I came back my dust caps had been taken.

"It is one of those situations where they just aren't helping themselves, because the local authority is trying to increase the number of designated patches across the borough.

"Our proposals so far have mostly been greeted with disdain from the public and when things like this happen you can see why."

Travellers who set up illegal camps across Walsall cost taxpayers £70,000 over the last year

Lin 2015 Walsall Council had to move travellers on and clean up after them on 85 occasions – up from just 14 the previous year. The total cost to the taxpayer was at least £70,713, bosses said.

The number of camps is the highest amount reported for a number of years, with 62 brought to attention in 2013, following on from 21 in 2012 and 28 in 2011.