A TRAVELLER has vowed to continue setting up illegal camps until the council finds her a permanent base.

Margaret Pickett, 44, and her family – including her 79 yearold mum, who has Alzheimer’s – have been moving around Wickford for the past two months.

Yesterday morning the group pitched up their two caravans, horse trailer and two vans on the car park next to Wickford Swimming Pool, in Market Road.

Mrs Pickett has vowed to stay put until she is served a legallybinding eviction notice.

She said: “We’re not a nuisance, and we don’t leave any rubbish behind.

“Once people talk to us and let us explain our point of view, they’re a lot more understanding and sympathetic.

“We will carry on as we have been until the council finds us a plot.”

The family is on the waiting list for a legal traveller site in Maldon.

Mrs Pickett said she has decided to move around Wickford and Shotgate as she likes the area.

Local authorities have to apply for a court order to remove travellers from their land, but the process typically takes more than a week.

Kevin Blake, deputy leader of Basildon Council, is working with officers to speed up the process. He said: “Businesses are going to lose trade, and where are shoppers or parents taking their children to the pool supposed to park?

“This is on another level to travellers pitching up in a park on a grass verge.

“I’m really angry. I feel like this has been done on purpose because we keep issuing eviction notices.”

David Harrison, has been inundated with complaints from concerned residents.

He added: “Travellers know it takes seven to ten days to go through the eviction process.

“Wherever they go some people are going to be upset, but to go into the town centre is a bit silly. If they had anybody on their side, they will lose that quite quickly.”

2 MONTHS OF TRAVELLERS PITCHING UP AROUND AREA

THE group of travellers first pitched up at Barn Hall car park, in Wickford, eight weeks ago.

The Essex Countywide Traveller Unit, made up of representatives from councils, police and the fire service, issued a court summons in August when the caravans then moved on to land in nearby Radwinter Avenue.

They subsequently moved to land off a roundabout in Cranfield Park Road.

Last week the group moved on to land in Hodgson Way, Shotgate, which is owned by Essex County Council Over the summer, other groups of travellers have parked up on land in Pitsea – including at Eversley Recreation Ground, East Mayne, Little Searles, and most recently, Mill Green.

Developer Redrow Homes has employed a 24-hour security team after six caravans moved on to fields off Ballards Walk, Laindon.

The site has also been fenced off to make way for a proposed 135-home development.