Nantwich Town has been forced to cancel community football sessions, blaming “intimidating” Travellers who set up camp on land next to the Weaver Stadium.
Club chiefs say the behaviour of teenagers among the Traveller families forced them to abandon sessions on Thursday and cancel the weekend session.
The decision is likely to impact on more than 100 children who attend the popular football training sessions each week.
Police and the club have been involved in discussions with the Travellers.
But Jon Gold, Nantwich Town director of football operations, said the behaviour was so disruptive they had to abandon football sessions last night (Thursday May 28).
Mr Gold added: “Obviously, this is an extremely frustrating and annoying situation that has developed over the past couple of days.
“They have completely disrupted the club and the surrounding area.
“Whilst we respect their need to find land to stay at on a temporary basis, the annoying factor is the behaviour of some of their kids in intimidating the families and young players who attend our community soccer sessions, we have sadly had no alternative but to cancel tomorrow’s (Saturday May 30) community coaching session to protect the players and their families who normally attend.
“The police are obviously doing all that they can, but unfortunately appear powerless to act in the short term and need a court order as they are occupying private land.
“By the time this has been obtained, they will have hopefully moved on.”
It’s believed the Traveller families are on their way to the Appleby Fair in Cumbria, which runs from June 4 to 10.
“Sadly and frustratingly, it’s all about damage limitation and protecting our customers though its obviously damaging to the club and the residents that surround it,” added Mr Gold.
Cllr Arthur Moran, who represents Nantwich North and West, said the council was powerless to help as it is private land.
“Cheshire East are aware of the situation, and if it was on council land we have a block injunction in place which could be served immediately,” he said.
“It’s a real shame for the club, as they would have to go to court and apply for their own injunction.”
Nantwichnews has contacted Nantwich Neighbourhood Policing Unit but we are still awaiting a response.
Isn’t Sainsbury’s also contributing a little to the problem? I have never parked there without “car wash sir?” seconds after opening my door. It seems 100% of the car wash workers are Eastern European, so I have two questions: isn’t it illegal for a company to recruit solely on the basis of ethnicity, and doesn’t the massive turnover just suggest it’s a route to self-employment status, and hence an NI number? I’m surprised how many people are willing to support what seems to be a continuous turnover of hundreds of new arrivals, and I’d be interested to know what happens to those that move on from car washing.
If you look on http://www.streetlife.com website for Nantwich you will see people are commenting on the lorries parked up in lay bys round the area which appear to have immigrants living in them. Are the police doing anything about them? There is washing hanging up outside some of them so it’s obvious that they are there
Why would the police do anything about immigrants? We have already been told that immigration into the UK is totally uncontrolled. The immigrants end up in laybys in places like Nantwich, not in the “posh” areas where politicians live. The present Home Secretary has failed totally in this part of her job and the Prime Minister offers platitudes and few half-baked “sound bite solutions”. Better get use to it – it’s not going to change. Perhaps Edward Timpson can help – but I wouldn’t hold your breath if I were you.
OK the police need a court order to move caravans and the like, but surely they don’t need a court order to arrest people who are being threatening.