Yesterday Bailiffs served notice on the Travellers, who had an unauthorised encampment on the KGV Playing Fields. They left today (15 Sept.) at 5pm, leaving behind their rubbish. Guildford Borough Council will visit the site tomorrow to assess the clean-up requirements. In the meantime, residents are advised to take care because of possible human waste in the woods.
The site has now been secured, and the gate by the Scout Hut closed.
How did they actually enter the playing fields in the first place?
We stopped calling it a “Hut” when the new building went up and is Officially called “ The Milestone Scout HQ”
Thu the brand new expensive scout gate
Actually the travellers entered during normal opening hours through the main gate. The trustees will make a statement in due course.
I was in field at eviction time and spoke to the four bailiffs who were struggling to drill out the cheap brass padlock that had (presumably) been fitted by the travellers to keep the gate open. It was no easy task!
I asked them if, in their professional opinion, a padlock had been correctly installed inside the purpose-made steel housing in the gate to keep it securely shut. They replied (and I quote) ‘no way’.
(It has been suggested that there was a lock fitted in the housing and it was ‘picked or cut out’, leaving no visible damage to gate.
Again, the bailiffs dismissed those possibilities).