A group of travellers have added another Dudley location to a long list of temporary sites in the Black Country they have chosen to call home.

Donkey Pool Playing Fields, on Priory Road, is regularly used by families as well as doubling as a football pitch every Sunday for a local football team. A handful of caravans arrived on the site yesterday afternoon with residents worried that more are on their way after an injunction was granted to remove caravans from fields in Halesowen. 

Locals are also concerned that the complaints to police around anti-social behaviour, noise nuisance and alleged criminal damage from other sites could soon be prevalent around their homes. One local homeowner said:

"These groups seem to be on a constant jolly around the area at the moment - as soon as the council can remove them from one location, they drive down the road to the next.

"I've got two children who are off school and, whilst I'm sure it doesn't apply to everyone involved, there have been a number of reports of the people who set up camp causing problems in the local area.

"It's fair to say the estates round here haven't always been squeaky clean, but in the last few years a real sense of community has developed and the last thing we need is for this to spoil things."

The news comes just weeks after Dudley Council were faced with a headache trying to evict a similar group from Priory Park and days after travellers who moved onto fields opposite Halesowen College were given their marching orders.

In order to obtain an injunction to force the travellers to leave, Council bosses have to begin legal proceedings which can take up to five days to complete every time a camp is set up. However even after the paperwork is put into force, tax payers often end up footing a bill to clean up rubbish left on the site and to fix any damage caused to gain entry.