A GROUP of travellers camping in Amblecote were this afternoon being given their marching orders as tensions in the community mounted.

Police were called to the site off Turners Lane near Sainsbury’s Amblecote, where around 32 caravans were reportedly parked up, after a Section 61 eviction order was issued - following complaints from residents in the Withymoor area concerned about anti-social behaviour and rubbish being dumped.

Police and Crime Commissioner for the West Midlands, David Jamieson, seemed reluctant to sanction such an order just days ago when Dudley South MP Mike Wood urged police to step in and use Section 61 powers to instantly evict the group – who are believed to have moved onto the site after a court order ordered them off playing fields further up the road near the One-Stop convenience store.

He said the eviction order, issued under Section 61 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, was not the “be-all-and-end-all solution” and could result in travellers simply moving to another area.

But the go-ahead to evict the group was issued today, the News has been informed, and the travellers were ordered to leave the site by mid-afternoon.

Stourbridge News:

Councillor Paul Bradley, who was bombarded with complaints from anxious residents, said it was the “right decision” to utilise the Section 61 powers of eviction and he added: “They were causing way too much trouble – they’ve disregarded everyone else and it’s not fair.”

He said he’d received reports of noise nuisance and anti-social behaviour going on at the site until 3.40am - and one woman, who did not wish to be named, said she’d taken in her grandchildren who were too afraid to stay in their Withymoor home with the travellers camped on their doorstep.

Cllr Bradley said a specialist team would again have to be drafted in to clean up the site following the group’s departure.