NEW measures may be introduced to a car park in Thornbury after noisy travellers pitched up and disrupted the town.


Several caravans were spotted parking at Rock Street car park last Thursday, resulting in residents raising concerns on social media and contacting the police.


Resident Natalie Burgess, who works at a pub in the town, told the Gazette a group of the travellers’ children had caused a disturbance by entering the premises and shouting at customers and staff.


She said: “I was working the other night when I noticed on camera a load of kids running in, then heard screaming and shouting from the male toilets, so shouted over to my boss to check it out.


“There were about four boys and six girls ranging from nine to 13-years-old shouting at us as they wanted to play pool. We explained that we could not allow them in without an adult then my boss was called a racist because they were Irish, which wasn’t the case – we could not allow them in as they were without an adult.


“It puts the whole community on edge. They try and intimidate people to get their own way, also they can park up in the car park across all the bays and get away with it.”


Cllr David Chubb, newly elected for Thornbury North, wants a height bar on the car park to be put in place to prevent travellers entering.


Cllr Chubb said: “It’s inconvenient and intimidating to local people, who abide by the law, when these illegal encampments crop up.


“This simple, cost-effective move would mean caravans and mobile homes would be unable to come onto the car park.

"I welcome local residents in Thornbury contacting me with their thoughts on this.”


Avon and Somerset Police said officers had visited the site, near the Turnberrie’s Community Centre, shortly after the travellers arrived, and that “they were not causing any sufficient disruption to the community”.


South Gloucestershire Council worked with the police to negotiate with the travellers to leave the car park.


A spokesman said: “While we do not charge to park in our car parks, we do enforce parking restrictions across the district in order to maximise the availability of parking facilities for motorists. This applies to Rock Street car park as well as the other car parks and on-street parking bays that we provide.


“When the travellers were first reported our priority was to get them to move off as quickly as possible, so that all the spaces provided would be available to motorists.

We worked closely with the police and the car park was fully available to motorists by Monday morning. In addition, we are now looking to introduce some changes to Rock Street car park to prevent an illegal encampment from happening again.


“In recognition of the difficulties involved over the weekend, no penalty notices were issued to anyone found to be in breach of the regulations at Rock Street car park.”