Travellers move on from sports ground in south Bristol but leave a trail of garden and domestic rubbish
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00:00 Good morning, it's Alex Ross here from Bristol World.
00:04 Just down at the sports fields in South Bristol in Stockwood, owned by Imperial Sports.
00:12 And you may have seen on Bristol World over the last few days, but there were a group of travellers which moved on to this green space on the bottom of Sturminster Road.
00:24 They were here for a few days and last night they moved on. We believe they've moved on to land at Whitchurch Airfield.
00:34 And we've just come down here today to see what the situation is like, what's been left here at the green space.
00:41 And unfortunately, as you can see here, I'm just going to turn the camera around.
00:45 We've got this gentleman here, Mr Inman, who's the litter picker for the sports grounds and he's got quite a job this morning.
00:52 This is just some of it, clearing up the mess which has been left by the travellers.
00:57 I'm just going to turn the camera around so you can see the extent of the waste at one end of the sports ground.
01:03 This is just one end of the sports ground, I must add. You can't see further up where the grass has been turned over into mud and there's just general rubbish everywhere.
01:12 But at this corner of the sports ground, heaps of garden and domestic waste have been left in piles.
01:18 I'm going to turn the camera around so you can see.
01:23 So you can just see at the back there, you can see the rugby goals and this is kind of like a corner, a ditch if you like, at the back.
01:30 Maybe a drainage ditch at one point, but it's been left full of just piles of garden and domestic waste.
01:41 Which the club, unfortunately, is having to clear up. Mr Inman here has been at the top, clearing up some of the more throwaway waste which has been left by the caravans at the top.
01:52 But this is kind of more organised heaped waste which he can't do and the club are going to have to get a skip down tomorrow to clear up.
01:59 Mr Inman, maybe if I just speak to you very quickly on this. Just tell me, when did you first become aware of the rubbish left here?
02:07 I've become aware of this this morning. When I came over, Matt told me that I'm not allowed to come over when the gym is here.
02:17 So he said they're all gone. So he said I'll go over and do as much as I can.
02:23 And so I've seen all the outsold waste and I thought, well, it's not a problem for us to do that.
02:30 So how long have you been up here clearing the waste?
02:32 I don't know, about two hours.
02:34 Two hours, OK. And how many bags did you say you filled in that time?
02:37 Three.
02:38 Jeez, OK. And you said earlier that it wasn't just household waste and garden waste. You found some glass in the floor as well, is that right?
02:46 I found some glass in the floor and also human waste.
02:53 Yeah, yeah.
02:54 Loads of human waste.
02:56 Oh dear.
02:58 What impact does this have on the sports club? I mean, you're down here this morning clearing up.
03:03 Apparently it spoils all the kids' enjoyment, living around this area.
03:08 The kids who have a lot in the family, they're mainly afraid to come down here.
03:13 Yeah, yeah.
03:14 Because of all this.
03:17 OK.
03:18 And I really feel sorry for them.
03:20 Yeah.
03:21 Because me son used to play down here and the clubhouse and everything.
03:27 You know, it's still an endless distance there.
03:30 We'll walk up there in one minute to have a look at the turf which has been driven over.
03:35 But it's quite a nice surface here. It's been trained on during the week.
03:39 It's been trained on before the kick-ups are in half.
03:43 I used to come down here every week.
03:46 And the grounds used to be lovely. Cornish Gardens used to cut the grass and everything.
03:52 It was a joy to come down here. It was very peaceful and lovely.
03:56 And now I've filled up this area.
03:59 Yeah, yeah.
04:00 And I've referenced it to you earlier, but you think they're going to get skipped down tomorrow to clear this up?
04:05 Is that the case?
04:06 Yeah.
04:07 Yeah.
04:08 Yeah.
04:09 Yeah.
04:10 OK.
04:11 Well, let's just quickly walk up to the top so we can get a better view.
04:15 Let's just walk along here.
04:16 So those just joining us, we've come down to the sports ground, the sports area owned by Imperial,
04:25 where Travellers moved on last night.
04:27 We believe they've moved on to the airfield in Whitchurch, where they were previously.
04:34 But you can just see we've come down here, just some of the rubbish which has been left here.
04:39 And it's unfortunately been left for the sports ground, which is a charity, to clear up.
04:46 And it's not just down here where there is piles of rubbish, but at the top, we'll see in a minute,
04:52 the turf has been pulled up by obviously tyre marks from all the caravans which have been situated here for three, four days they were here for.
05:00 Is that right?
05:01 Roughly about four days, yeah.
05:03 Yeah, about four days.
05:04 OK.
05:05 And my understanding is that a couple of days ago, the charity put notices on all the caravans asking them to leave.
05:15 And they said last night they left.
05:18 This is private land, so it wasn't down to the council to ask them to leave,
05:22 although the council, I understand, were assisting the charity in dealing with the police
05:27 and trying to make contact with the Travellers to ask them to move on.
05:31 You can see just down here some of the tyre marks around the bottom of the sports pitch.
05:37 Just tell me, how often is this used, Mr Wimbledon?
05:42 I wouldn't know that, because it's different seasons, isn't it?
05:46 It's a different season here now, so it'll be probably used then.
05:51 But obviously they're going to have to cancel, because it's rubbish.
05:56 It's not very hygienic.
05:59 Are the games or training happening over the next couple of days, or do you understand?
06:04 Most of it, yeah.
06:05 Yeah.
06:07 And is this the first time it's happened in the time you've been working here?
06:12 It's the second time.
06:13 The second time. When was the first time?
06:15 The second time, I think, was in the ground over the main Imperial ground last year.
06:21 And they left, I guess.
06:23 Yeah, OK.
06:25 Well, so we're just getting to the corner now where obviously a lot of the vehicles were going over,
06:31 and you can see where there was probably quite a nice surface here,
06:35 but unfortunately it's all been torn up by the movement of vehicles.
06:43 They left last night, and we believe they've gone on to the airfield site where they were previously.
06:50 Some of the caverns were also situated at one point on Whitchurch Green as well.
06:57 I mean, we can see here now the surface.
06:59 This would have been green grass, and now it's almost become a bit of a mud driveway.
07:04 It's not dissimilar to something you see at a concert, is it?
07:07 Obviously, this is where they've been bringing in the household waste.
07:13 Yeah, yeah.
07:14 They've been carrying it down the road.
07:17 Yeah.
07:18 Shall we just maybe go a bit further so we can get a better view of the pictures?
07:25 I don't really remember.
07:27 Yeah, and someone's just pointed.
07:29 You can't really see on the camera, but there's rubbish just left across the pictures
07:34 down the left-hand side there and along the hedges.
07:37 Maybe this just gives us a better view as we're going up.
07:40 You can see how the earth has been churned up,
07:43 and there aren't many areas of the pictures which haven't been gone over by a vehicle by the looks of it.
07:49 And as you can see, towards the left-hand side, you've got the clubhouse, well, the changing rooms,
07:54 next to Sturminster Road, is that correct?
07:56 The bottom of Sturminster Road by the roundabout.
08:00 And on the right-hand side here, this is where Mr. Inman, who I met him this morning,
08:05 you probably can't quite see in the picture, but there's bags of waste which have been collected along the metal railing.
08:12 And thankfully, people like Mr. Inman come down and do this job.
08:17 I'm going to finish here, Mr. Inman, but maybe if I just ask you one more question.
08:22 The community will bounce back from this, won't they?
08:25 There's a strong community, and people will be back here soon enough.
08:31 And I guess that just shows the strength of the community that someone like you is down here this morning, in your own time, doing this job.
08:37 Well, I get a lot of people coming in saying thank you, and we really appreciate it.
08:44 Yeah, thank you.
08:46 Especially not today.
08:48 Well, thank you, Mr. Inman, and thank you for watching, everyone.
08:51 We're going to be running a story on Bristol World later today, with just some pictures and giving you an update on the situation,
08:57 especially down at the airfield site.
08:59 Thank you very much, all. Goodbye.