Travellers in Newton Abbot called ‘aggressive and singularly unpleasant’

A group of travellers who had been living in a Newton Abbot town centre car park were the most ‘aggressive and singularly unpleasant’ seen in the town, councillors have claimed.

The convoy of caravans arrived overnight on Wednesday before the Easter holidays in the Cricketfield Road car park.

Teignbridge District Council had applied to a judge to get an order to order them to leave the council-run car park on Friday, April 6, but hours before the hearing, the group left of their own accord.

Councillor Phil Bullivant, who is the council’s portfolio holder for car park, said that he wanted to place on record his thank to the council staff for the work they did in clearing up after the travellers left the car park.He said that they left at 6.30pm on the Thursday and staff worked hard to ensure the car park was clear and open by Friday morning.

But the Conservative councillor said: “These travellers were more aggressive than any seen before and reacted violently to the approach to get them to move on from the car park. They had left a tonne of rubbish behind and had caused some damage to the car park.”

Councillor  Gordon Hook, leader of the Liberal Democrat group, added his thanks to the work the council staff had done, and said: “The travellers were very aggressive and a singularly unpleasant group of human beings.”