Forfar residents say they are feeling increasingly “threatened” by an illegal Travellers’ encampment in their midst.
The convoy pitched up on open ground just off the Montrose Road a week past Sunday and locals said they were concerned that the number of vehicles continues to swell, in defiance of an order that Angus Council said it made last week telling the Travellers to quit the site by Friday lunchtime.
The open ground, bordered by housing at Lilybank, Gowanbank and the McCulloch Drive area, is held by the Strang’s trust and residents say the area is now virtually a no-go zone for children and dog walkers.
“Yet more caravans and trailers moved in earlier this week and it is very unsettling to see the sheer volume of people now on the encampment and roaming around at dusk,” said one mum, who lives nearby.
“We couldn’t believe it when we saw the council emptying their bins and that was after they had opened the entrance on the Montrose Road side to make it easier to get in because they had first gone through the Lilybank playpark.”
She added: “My children don’t even want to go out into the garden now, for fear of drawing attention to themselves.
“We’ve been monitoring this since they arrived and it’s alarming that some of the vehicles go away for days on end but the caravans are left here.
“This area is very popular with dog walkers and families, where youngsters go out to learn to ride their bikes and things like that, but it seems that people are just not going there now and it is now mainly the Travellers’ children using the playpark.
“We’re very concerned that it is going to get worse before it gets better and I am sure a lot of residents are feeling very intimidated by all this,” she said.