TRAVELLERS have moved onto a former hospital site in Huddersfield. 

Caravans and lorries have parked up on grass verges outside the former St Luke’s Hospital in Crosland Moor. 

They moved on to the land off Blackmoorfoot Road late on Tuesday. 

It is thought they had  previously been on land off Old Leeds Road. 

The hospital shut down at the end of 2010 and was fenced off with security fencing to try and keep out intruders. 

A spokesperson for the owners, the Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are aware that a number of  travellers’ caravans have arrived at the entrance of St Lukes Hospital. 

“We are working with the police to resolve the matter”. 

The hospital, which had operated for more than a century, shut down after patients with mental health problems and geriatric concerns were moved. 

All the services were transferred to Halifax or Dewsbury and District Hospital and some of the mental health patients are being cared for in a new  £11.8million medium secure unit at Newton Lodge, based at the Fieldhead Hospital in Wakefield.

In Dewsbury there is a 30-bed unit, aimed at older people. 

The Trust set up a partnership with Henry Boot Developments Limited to manage the sprawling hospital site. 

The Trust spokesman said: “Regarding the situation with St Lukes we are currently looking at planning proposal to dispose of the site.”