Friday 25 August 2017, the Trustees of the charity, Effingham Village Recreation Trust, have provide an update on the incursion of Travellers onto the King George V Playing Fields, via their website
Early this morning arrangements were agreed with Guildford Borough Council to deliver today refuse containers to the site to assist the task of minimizing the impact of the incursion as far as we can.
Just before 9am an Effingham resident (see yesterday’s article in The Guildford Dragon) was arrested by the Surrey Police following a report that he was using a vehicle to obstruct the entrance to the site on the A246, and after being breathalysed he was taken into custody at Guildford Police Station to be questioned about several suspected offences. Details of this arrest have been published today in The Guildford Dragon. We emphasise again that residents should not exacerbate the situation at the KGV by trying to take matters into their own hands.
By 2pm the refuse containers from GBC had been delivered and action also taken to provide clean water. Besides their humanitarian aspect, actions of this kind help prevent the raising of welfare-related impediments to the execution of possession orders.
During the afternoon the Trustees had several discussions with various groups among the travellers. The area occupied by the caravans has so far been maintained in a reasonably clean and tidy state.
A possession order has been issued today by Guildford County Court and is in process of being served at the site. The court hearing for possession has been listed for the morning of 4 September – pressure on court schedules together with the coming Bank Holiday made it impossible to obtain an earlier date. However, we hope the travellers may have departed before that hearing takes place.
The Neighbourhood Policing Team intend there to be two visits made to the site each day by PCS Officers.