A CLEAN-up operation is set to start in Kingswinford after travellers were finally moved on from Dudley borough.

Residents across have bared the brunt of the travellers, who had been filmed using playground equipment on a park off Cot Lane as a toilet, since last Friday.

But yesterday (Thursday, September 29), the group of travellers – who had already been moved on from Wordsley’s King George V Park and football pitches in Withymoor – were forced off the site after Dudley Council served them with a court order.

Councillor Paul Brothwood, leader of the borough’s UKIP group, said he is relieved to see the travellers leave.

He said: “They left Cot Lane at about 4.30pm yesterday afternoon, and the last I heard they had gone out of the borough and towards Tipton.

“I am relieved that the situation is over, but we now need to make sure the council are ready for next time and be better prepared.”

A clean-up in Wordsley's King George V Park has already resulted in a £1,850 bill, but Cllr Brothwood anticipates that the overall bill for the three borough sites will be at least £200,000.

Councillor Hilary Bills, cabinet member for environmental services, said the council will get the Cot Lane park as clean and safe to use “as quickly as possible”.

She said: “After a court order was served yesterday we are pleased that we have moved the travellers off Cot Lane and are now able to start the clean-up operation.

“I would like to reassure local residents that we will get the area clean and safe to use as quickly as possible.

“Our contractors have been on site since the early hours of this morning and we expect to complete the clean-up in the next few days.”

Cllr Brothwood added: “We had been calling for the court order to have been served sooner, as the longer we waited it was costing the council more and more money.

“What we need is a permanent ban, a blanket ban across the whole of the borough similar to the one they have applied for in Walsall.

“These incidents have been costing the council so much money as they’ve had to apply for a new ban every time they moved to a different place, they say the costs of the clean-up will be around £100,000, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they were at least double that.

“In these times of stringent council budgets, that is way too much money.

“These costs could also have been saved if the setting up of illegal camps were a criminal offence rather than a civil matter.

“I will be calling on our borough MPs to take this to the Prime Minister and make it a matter of urgency.”