Park mess is left behind by travellers

Discarded rubbish left in the sandpit at Crankwood Park

The travellers had taken over the park on Crankwood Road in Leigh last week, damaging the gates to enter and setting up on a patch of land just behind a play area.

Bailiffs swiftly attended the site last Monday to serve an eviction notice, and a council team arrived on Wednesday to carry out the eviction.

But despite the short occupation, the land has been left ruined, leaving a large section of the park unusable during the school summer holidays.

The land now looks more akin to a bog than a park, with its entrance churned up into mud and sludge and bags of rubbish strewn across the field.

A council spokesman confirmed the site had been cleaned and tidied over the weekend, and that more work would be carried out once the land had dried.

Paul Barton, assistant director for environment, said: “Protecting our land and greenspaces is a top priority for us.

“Our new policy for dealing with unauthorised encampments allows us to take action quickly to move groups from our land and our teams are always on hand ready to clean-up.

“In each instance we also look if there’s any further measures we can take to protect the site in the long-term.”