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Travellers pitch caravans at Beechings Way Playing Fields, Gillingham

Travellers have moved on to a children's playing field.

There are around 10 caravans on the recreation ground in Beechings Way, Gillingham.

Travellers at Beechings Way Playing Fields in Twydall
Travellers at Beechings Way Playing Fields in Twydall

The visitors are thought to have arrived on Saturday morning and removed a post so they could get onto the land.

Legal action is being taken by Medway Council to evict them.

The caravans have congregated on the grass around the children's play area and on the car park by the community centre.

This time they seem to have stayed away from the football pitches.

Travellers moved onto the playing fields in August last year and positioned their caravans near the goal posts.

They gained access to the land by removing a wooden post.

Travellers are around the play area
Travellers are around the play area
Some of the caravans are on the car park by the community centre
Some of the caravans are on the car park by the community centre

There have been several other occasions in recent years when travellers have occupied the field.

In 2019, they turned up five times in a month.

The latest encampment comes after seven traveller families were evicted from land they owned off Lower Rainham Road because they did not have permission to live there.

Ian Gilmore, Medway Council’s head of regulatory services, said of the Beechings Way caravans: “We are following a civil legal process to move the group on as quickly as possible.”

Officers will have to go to court to ask for an order telling the travellers to move on or risk legal action.

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