THEO USHERWOOD
A gipsy encampment has sprung up just 200 yards from the country home of Tessa Jowell, the Olympics Minister.
Dozens of travellers piled on to the site over the bank holiday weekend, setting up a water supply and laying electricity cables.
A septic tank has been installed and concrete pathways laid on the site, near the town of Shipston-on-Stour in Warwickshire. Fencing has also been erected and hedges have been pulled down.
Residents reported the caravans moved on to the two-and-a-half acre site on Friday, leading to accusations that the gipsies were taking advantage of the public holiday when no-one at Warwickshire County Council was working.
The field, which has space for at least 30 caravans, is just 200 yards from home of Ms Tessa Jowell, 60, and her estranged husband David Mills. It was reported the gipsies had bought the site from a local businessman.
Conservative councillor Chris Saint, who represents the area on Warwickshire County Council, said: "Up until last Thursday it was simply a piece of pasture land. On Friday morning I got a call from one of the parish councillors to say that there was some frenzied activity taking place on the field.
"I understand that water and electricity have been brought on and I also understand they have put in a septic tank and put down roads and fencing."
Zack Follows, 31, said that about 100 English Romany Gipsies were on the site. The father-of-four said there were 16 plots, which had each been bought for about £20,000. There were two caravans on each plot.
Mr Follows said: "The council is supposed to be supplying sites for the gipsy community, but no sites are being provided and there is nowhere for the community to go.
"There is water and electricity. At the end of the day we are human beings and we have got to make it liveable.
"I want my children to go to school. We are not the sort that pull up and down fields. Anyone is welcome to come down here and have a look. Obviously it's a building site at the moment, but when it is finished it will be done to perfection.
"To be honest, I didn't even know Tessa Jowell until this morning when I read the paper. But she is more than welcome to come down here, come in to my home and see how we live."
The site was owned by businessman John Rutter but he sold it more than 12 months ago. It has then been divided up in to plots which have been sold on to families.
His wife, Michelle, said yesterday he was on holiday, skiing in Austria.
She said: "We sold the land through an agent. We hadn't got a clue they had sold it to travellers." Asked whether she wanted gipsies living on the site, she said: "Of course we don't."
She declined to say how much the land had been sold for.
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