Forfar’s Travellers issue has moved on to another part of the town.
Within hours of a sheriff signing an eviction notice for an illegal site at Montrose Road, the group made a late night flit on Thursday and are now camped on vacant ground at Orchardbank business park.
The gathering of more than 20 caravans and numerous associated vans, lorries, cars and trailers is now pitched up between the Scottish headquarters of the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association and the Angus House HQ of Angus Council.
Their arrival on the council-owned land, which is part of the business park still to be developed, means that there are now two Travellers encampments within a short distance of each other.
The local authority has been monitoring another group at the A94 roundabout, just off the Forfar bypass who have been there for some time.
Montrose Road residents said they were relieved that the Travellers had gone from the Strangs Trust ground between Lilybank and Gowanbank after living in growing fear and frustration since the Travellers moved in their a week past Sunday.
They attempted to take their concerns to Forfar Community Council, but were refused permission to speak to the meeting after a prepared statement confirming the eviction order was read out.
The Travellers had remained on the land in defiance of an earlier order requiring them to quit the site. However, it is thought baliffs were in place to enforce the eviction today if they did not move on.
“It’s a relief that they’re gone from here, but they’ve done what we all knew they would and just moved on to another part of Forfar,” said one Montrose Road resident.
“We felt really let down by the Community Council. Its role is to listen to the concerns of residents on any matters that they want to take to it and yet they didn’t even allow us to speak.
“We felt threatened by the presence of these people for nearly ten days. Our children wouldn’t go outside to play, there were people doing the toilet in open view and dogs running around.
“This latest group may have gone, but they have used this piece of land before and probably will again so we have got to get somebody to listen to us and try to get something in place to stop it happening again,” they added.