Travellers Break Into Horsted Farm
Yesterday (Monday 16 May 2005) afternoon, a group of Travellers who are new to Medway managed to break the big lock on the sturdy metal gate protecting Horsted Farm (the top field) from intrusion and settled on the field.
The quick reactions of nearby residents ensured that the council and the police were informed, as were the Ward Councillors for Rochester South and Horsted, in which ward the field resides. The ward councillors are in regular contact with council officers and others while the necessary actions to evict the intruders are carried out.
The Travellers' story is that one of their vehicles suffered a gearbox failure, this was the nearest parcel of land they found, and the gate was open, so they drove onto it. Now, everyone around here is well aware that the gate is rarely opened at all, and is certainly never left open: ward councillors keep a close eye on this, just in case, and we now that others do liewise.
Therefore this has to be a made-up story by the Travellers, and the truth must surely be that they deliberately broke in.
Unfortunately, trespass is a civil offence and not a criminal act, so we shall have to go through the customary legal procedures before being able to have them evicted, which will take a week or more.
Even so, we were able to get this encampment to depart in just two days (is this a record?) during the early part of the Wednesday evening.