A TOWN centre shanty town has finally been cleared by Kirklees Council.
Bulldozers ripped the small community apart following complaints by local residents.
It is thought the middle-aged man who created the shanty town had thought it was part of his family’s land.
Residents say the area off Rook Street in Huddersfield town centre near to the ring road has been in a terrible state for more than three years.
But Kirklees Council has now spent hundreds of pounds clearing dozens of lorry loads of rubbish from the site.
An old mattress, TV and a large amount of wood were cleared from the site on Saturday.
Kirklees Council acted to clear the land after they were unable to trace the owner.
Local residents have welcomed the clean-up effort.
A mother-of-two, who did not want to be named, said: “It was in such a state it was bringing the rest of the street down.
“But nobody knew what to do or dared say anything to the people coming and going from it. I can’t believe it has taken them so long to clear it, but at least now it’s done.
“It would be nice if the council could open the area out and put some grass and plants there so we could use the land and the children could play there.”
An Asian man aged in his mid-50s is believed to have created the shanty town.
There were three wooden huts on the site and around six hens and chickens living there which were moved before the demolishers arrived at the site on Saturday morning.
It took workmen more that seven hours to clear waste at the site using a large bin wagon.
Most of the site looked to have been built from reclaimed rubbish with hundreds of pieces of wood and waste materials dotted around.
Trees had been cut down to make space for the mini-huts.
A Kirklees Council spokesman said there had been a lot of work behind the scenes to find the person responsible for creating the shanty town.
But the decision was taken to clear the land after the person responsible failed to respond to council communication.
