TRAVELLERS who sparked controversy after being given a temporary home at a holiday park in Northumberland will be gone within three months, it has been revealed.
The Journal revealed six weeks ago how an extended travelling family had been allowed to move onto the vacant caravan and camp site at the Wansbeck Riverside Park in Ashington.
They were permitted by county council bosses to move their six caravans from their previous roadside location a few miles away, which was not considered to be safe or appropriate to their needs.
Subsequently, almost 700 local people signed a petition amid concerns that the 17-acre park could become a permanent transit site for travelling families, after the council said its long-term future was under review.
Now a new report to councillors says the family will be allowed to stay on site over the winter months, but will leave no later than the end of March.
In addition, it has been decided not to use Riverside Park as a permanent transit site – and it will be put back on the market as a leisure and camping facility when it becomes vacant in the spring.
The council allowed the family to move in on November 11, saying it had a legal duty to provide them with suitable accommodation under homelessness legislation.
At that time the proposed sale of the caravan park was put on hold to enable the travellers to use it, and to assess its potential as a permanent transit site.
Ashington Town Council later expressed its fury that it only found out about the county council decision by reading it in The Journal.
