Three-day closure of Spalding car park ends as travellers move on

UPDATE, Monday noon: The travellers who arrived in a Spalding car park overnight on Thursday left over the weekend.

A spokesperson for South Holland District Council, which owns the Victoria Street facility, said: “The travellers left the car park at 2pm on Sunday.

“We provided them with rubbish and recycling bags which they used and we have cleaned up. The site is now clear and back in full use.”

He added that the clean-up did not result in any additional costs, which was incorporated as part of a normal cleansing day.

UPDATE, Friday 5.30pm: Travellers expected to be occupying Victoria Street car park in Spalding across this weekend will not be fined.

South Holland District Council leader Gary Porter said on Friday: “This morning I suggested that they [the vehicles] are ticketed. But I went to see the travellers and they are from Southern Ireland, so there is no chance of getting fines paid.

“I can understand that people will rightly have the hump, but we are limited in what we can do usefully.”

Coun Porter, who has requested extra police presence across the weekend, confirmed that eviction paperwork is under way but he expects the travellers to start moving off on Sunday and be gone by Monday.

Friday, 10.30am: Victoria Street car park in Spalding has had to be closed until Monday following the arrival of many caravans overnight on Thursday.

South Holland District Council, which owns the car park, said on Friday morning that it is working with the travellers to move them on “as quickly as possible”. It later said the car park would remain closed until Monday.

In the meantime, extra free parking provision has been made on cleared land known locally as Shed 5 (next to Sainsbury’s roundabout and accessed off King’s Road). Anyone who has season tickets for Victoria Street car park can use any other district council-owned car park for the time being.

A council spokesman said: “They [the caravan owners] are parking against the rules of the car park.

“We are closing the car park and enforcement officers are working with the caravan owners to move them on as quickly as possible.”

The council will be providing waste collection bags in an effort to maintain the car park’s cleanliness.