Travellers set up camp at a Northamptonshire medical centre

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The camp at Nene Park outpatients clinic
Image caption,

The camp has been set up in the car park of the Nene Park clinic

Travellers have set up camp at a medical centre in Northamptonshire.

Three caravans and a transit van have been parked in the car park of the Nene Park outpatients clinic in Irthlingborough since Friday afternoon.

The NHS, which owns the land, has instructed bailiffs who have ordered those at the camp to move on.

Travellers at the camp said there were no spaces at any council-owned traveller sites locally and there was nowhere else to go.

One of the travellers who did not want to be named, said: "We just stopped here for a couple of days and we have already had the bailiffs around. We will be moved on tomorrow. If that happens we might move to the football pitch down the road.

'Visiting families'

"There aren't enough places to go. The medical centre won't even let us use their toilets."

She added: "If there aren't any sites then where are we supposed to stop?"

Steve Wilkinson, manager of the council backed Countywide Traveller Unit (CTU), said there had been a rise in the number of traveller camps set up on council land.

He said: "The three council-owned camps that we have in the county are full and we have seen the number of temporary camps on the side of the road go up.

"Since April 1 we have had 49 camps, about 45 of those have moved on.

"We think that some might be travellers visiting families in the county, some may belong to seasonal workers or door-to-door trades people.

"These sites are not illegal, because trespassing is not a criminal offence, but we do have powers to move them on."

The camp at the Nene medical centre is set to be moved on on Wednesday.

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