Having just read your article about the travellers' who left the petrol station on London Road, I am urged to write to you with a few more details.

We live almost opposite the disused garage and watched in disbelief as four or five caravans moved in during the the night.

They remained there for nearly two weeks with their vans hooked up to the generator of the garage and therefore obtaining free electricity. Their children roamed the site and our neighbourhood, whilst all our children were at school.

The generator was noisy and kept us awake at night and they continually brought van loads of rubbish to add to the heap they had created.

We made numerous calls to the police, who seemed totally uninterested as it was on private land, and to Croydon Council only to be passed around and told it was the land owners' problem.

The land owners were of course upset but to be honest, would you want to knock on their caravan doors and tell them to move on?

The last straw for me was when I parked my car on the main road and discovered the pay machine was out of order. I was in the shop only a few minutes yet I received a parking fine.

It seems unfair that although I am a taxpayer, I am expected to pay council tax on top of parking fines for not abiding by Croydon's parking rules while one can park on a forecourt of a garage for two weeks and use it as a bathroom and dumping ground with no consequences.

It's little wonder these people do what they do when they can "get away with it" but give the landowners some credit, they cleared the site quickly and thoroughly, however one does wonder if we have simply cleared the site for their return.

UNHAPPY RESIDENT

West Croydon.

October 23, 2001 17:00