S
Snelly
Guest
Last Thursday, a convoy of about 40 Irish travellers caravans and associated transits and horseboxes arrived in our quiet village in rural Sussex. They smashed down a section of fence on our picturesque village green and took up residence whilst the police looked on. They could not intervene under a section 61 process as they did not feel that the residents lives would be sufficiently compromised by the arrival of the visitors.
Since then, 3 villagers have been assaulted, 16 window have been smashed with stolen apples and 7 separate outbuilding break-ins have been reported with thousands of pounds of kit being pinched.
The village green now looks like a bomb has hit it. Litter is everywhere and the place has been chewed up with quad bikes and scramblers. Generators x 30 odd run through the night, powering loud music until the early hours.
Screaming kids and domestic rows accompany the music too. The green is now a total no-go area and everyone is extremely stressed.
I have to walk my dogs somewhere else now obviously and was up on the South Downs yesterday morning. The rural splendour was made complete on the walk back down past our village green when I was treated to the joyous sight of a fat woman taking a strenuous dump in the hedge about 15 yards from the path. Just delightful....
Last night, I had more cause to thank our just want to add yet more thanks to our special traveller friends who prefer to dump their chocolate surprises al fresco. Last night, I spent 25 minutes pressure washing and scrubbing our whippet after she decided to roll for joy in a big pile of human poo on a bit of ground adjacent to the illegal camp. She still is feeling a bit sorry for herself and has a wonderful scent of orange and passion fruit shower gel with the finest hint of human excrement. I've also done a can of fabreze on her and she still reeks. Still, on the bright side, at least the little darlings on the green aren't having their human rights infringed and they can still exercise the right to drop their fudge sundaes all over our village.
A court order is being applied for tomorrow to get them evicted and then it is up to the Sussex Police Commissioner to decide if she wants to enforce it. If she does, they will be gone. If she doesn't want to get involved, as a village, we are left on our own and back at square one. Fingers crossed that they do the right thing. It will then be up to volunteers from the village to spend their spare time over the coming weeks clearing up the litter and removing the human and animal sewage.
I am all for live and let live and people have to co-exist somewhere but this has been a horrible experience for all and it should not have been allowed to happen. Thankfully, the government have committed to developing new legislation to make the process of removing illegal invasions.
And the travelling community wonder why people are prejudiced against them too???
Since then, 3 villagers have been assaulted, 16 window have been smashed with stolen apples and 7 separate outbuilding break-ins have been reported with thousands of pounds of kit being pinched.
The village green now looks like a bomb has hit it. Litter is everywhere and the place has been chewed up with quad bikes and scramblers. Generators x 30 odd run through the night, powering loud music until the early hours.
Screaming kids and domestic rows accompany the music too. The green is now a total no-go area and everyone is extremely stressed.
I have to walk my dogs somewhere else now obviously and was up on the South Downs yesterday morning. The rural splendour was made complete on the walk back down past our village green when I was treated to the joyous sight of a fat woman taking a strenuous dump in the hedge about 15 yards from the path. Just delightful....
Last night, I had more cause to thank our just want to add yet more thanks to our special traveller friends who prefer to dump their chocolate surprises al fresco. Last night, I spent 25 minutes pressure washing and scrubbing our whippet after she decided to roll for joy in a big pile of human poo on a bit of ground adjacent to the illegal camp. She still is feeling a bit sorry for herself and has a wonderful scent of orange and passion fruit shower gel with the finest hint of human excrement. I've also done a can of fabreze on her and she still reeks. Still, on the bright side, at least the little darlings on the green aren't having their human rights infringed and they can still exercise the right to drop their fudge sundaes all over our village.
A court order is being applied for tomorrow to get them evicted and then it is up to the Sussex Police Commissioner to decide if she wants to enforce it. If she does, they will be gone. If she doesn't want to get involved, as a village, we are left on our own and back at square one. Fingers crossed that they do the right thing. It will then be up to volunteers from the village to spend their spare time over the coming weeks clearing up the litter and removing the human and animal sewage.
I am all for live and let live and people have to co-exist somewhere but this has been a horrible experience for all and it should not have been allowed to happen. Thankfully, the government have committed to developing new legislation to make the process of removing illegal invasions.
And the travelling community wonder why people are prejudiced against them too???
