Caravans parked in the car park at the Kingfisher Leisure Centre in Sudbury.

A COUNCIL is expected to take legal action to evict a group of travellers that has been camped on a public car park close to a family leisure centre for more than two weeks.

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About 15 vehicles, including five caravans and several trucks and vans, have occupied more than 30 parking spaces on Sudbury’s Babergh District Council-owned Station Road car park since December 23.

At a case conference held last Thursday between Babergh, Suffolk County Council’s Gypsy & Traveller Liaison staff and others involved, it was recommended that the local authority should pursue action to repossess the land under the Civil Procedures Act – as soon as possible.

Council officers acknowledged that there was a “pressing need” to evict, partly due to fears that the group could grow if it was not moved on swiftly, and because of the loss of revenue incurred through the lack of parking spaces.

During the council’s Christmas break, shoppers, who must pay £1.50 per day to leave their vehicles in the car park, were left to guess why the travellers had been allowed to stay there free of charge and seemingly unchallenged, according to local councillors.

The car park is currently at the centre of a controversial move to introduce short-stay parking fees in the town.

One of the travellers told the East Anglian Daily Times just after Christmas that she intended to move on “within a day or so”.

But more recently, the group said they would stay put until the council told them to move.

The same group was evicted from Rodbridge picnic site, near Long Melford, late last year. Several town residents have contacted local councillors, including John Sayers and Simon Barrett, about the problem.

Mr Sayers, who has written to Babergh repeatedly since the encampment arrived, said people had approached him because they were angry that the travellers appeared to be getting preferential treatment by evading parking fees.

A spokesman for the council said last week that the matter was being treated as a trespass on the council’s land and was being dealt with as such, rather than a car park infringement.

The case conference was organised in accordance with a Suffolk-wide protocol – a 38-page document that gives guidelines and criteria for dealing with illegally-parked encampments.