Travellers left human waste and household rubbish behind after a week encamped on a rugby pitch.
Members of Shaw Cross Sharks ARLFC arrived at their ground of Leeds Road, Dewsbury, on Saturday to discover human excrement in the dugouts and behind the clubhouse and household waste strewn across the rugby field.
Now the club are renewing calls for Kirklees Council to fence off the pitch to prevent travellers returning – arguing that the cost involved would be nothing compared to the impact on the local community.
Club official Benny Richardson said: “They arrived last weekend with about eight caravans and were here all week. They pitched up on our rugby field. We have over 300 junior members who were supposed to be training and playing matches, which all had to be cancelled.”
He added: “We tried to talk to them, but they became aggressive towards one of own committee members.”
Mr Richardson said travellers turned up at the rugby club every year.
He said club members collected seven big bags of household rubbish following the travellers’ departure, but added: “They have also used the dugouts as a toilet and they have also been going to the toilet at the back of the clubhouse. That will be for someone to clear up. It is just terrible.”
Mr Richardson said travellers turned up at the rugby club every year.
“Kirklees have put boulders to try to stop them, but the only permanent solution will be to get the pitch fenced off properly,” he said. “The money side is irrelevant – it’s to do with this club being used by hundreds of members who have not been able to use it.
“We shouldn’t have to come here on a Saturday to find human waste.”
The incident is the second to involve travellers moving onto sports grounds this week.
Three caravans and other vehicles drove onto playing fields at Hawkroyd Bank Road, Netherton, on Thursday after a post designed to prevent vehicle access to the site was left unlocked. The travellers were briefly “locked in” by an angry resident who padlocked the post before one of the travellers complained.
Stephen Bentley, chairman of Netherton Juniors Football Club, which uses the playing fields, said the caravans had parked in the middle of the pitch.
