A GROUP of Travellers who had set up camp in a Winchester car park have now moved on, leaving a pile of children’s toys behind.

Families had been at the Cattle Market car park, Worthy Lane, since last week, taking over at least half of the spaces available.

The group left yesterday evening (Wednesday) after an order was granted by Basingstoke Magistrates Court to remove the vehicles from the land.

Winchester City Council stood bailiffs up to prepare for the removal, but Travellers had moved off the car park at around 8pm.

The group left behind a pile of children’s toys, but the city council has said that it has since cleared the site.

On Friday, the authority undertook a welfare visit and attempted get the group to move on voluntarily.

In a comment to the Chronicle, a council spokesperson said on Friday: “We are aware of a group of Travellers who have set up at the Cattle Market and have been to speak to them this afternoon. We have to check there are no issues in the group that means they are unable to move on and we always try to agree that the Travellers move on voluntarily. We will take the necessary legal action to move illegal encampments on council land if necessary.”

Winchester’s MP Steve Brine mentioned the encampment in Parliament on Monday as changes to the proposed Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill went before MPs.

Mr Brine opposed two new clauses, one which would see the Secretary of State review crime against Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities and the other would require training for relevant public officials in relation to crimes against these communities.

He said: “My constituents have an illegal encampment on the Cattle Market car park in the centre of Winchester just today which is inconveniencing my constituents lives and I do oppose those two clauses.”