A COURT date has been fixed for next Tuesday so Dudley Council can evict travellers from their illegal camp at Halesowen’s Hurst Green Park.

Seventeen caravans descended on the park on Tuesday and the travellers are understood to be Irish.

Nearby resident Sue Armstrong is calling on the council to protect the park to stop travellers parking up there again.

She said they had driven on through a gap between a tree and some fencing.

“I hope the council is prepared to spend some money to stop this happening again,” said Mrs Armstrong, adding: “They have made a race track around one end of the park and are churning up all the grass with their cars.

“They’ve no electricity or running water and there are no toilets at the park so there will be a mess and it will be taxpayers who have to pay to get the place cleaned up.”

Park users contacted the police as soon as the first caravans moved on and Mrs Armstrong said it was “madness” that the law did not allow the police to stop people trespassing onto land unless they were breaking in.

“If they could have turned them away all the expense of going to court and cleaning up after them would have been avoided,” she said.

West Midlands Police received several calls notifying them of the traveller invasion, but a spokeswoman said: “It was a council issue”.

She added: “We will often support the council when they serve eviction papers in case there is any trouble, but we couldn’t stop them entering the park unless they were causing criminal activity by breaking in.”