Travellers accused of leaving human waste and rubbish

But members of the travelling community have hit back, claiming they have no rights and are unfairly ostracised.

The Herald received a call from an anonymous resident in Stevenston who accused the council of failing to clear up “piles and piles of rubbish” thought to be left by travellers in the park near Glencairn Primary.

She said: “The waste has been lying there for days. There’s human waste all over the place, all over the bushes. It’s a place that’s used by the children, by the wildlife. There’s beautiful ducks and swans. There’s plastic bags and milk bottles in the duck pond.

“It’s attracting wasps and flies. They’ve left bits of carpet and rubbish lying about. The seagulls have ripped open the black bin bags and all the food and plastic has blown all over the place. Some of the plastic’s now in the pond. That’s two days it’s lay like this in this heat. They’ve left it absolutely disgusting.”

A North Ayrshire Council spokesperson said: “Our Streetscene team attended on Thursday to clear the rubbish from the site.”

Another resident called the Herald after travellers – believed to be the same group – moved into the land at Seafield School.

While the resident said that the travellers had not been disruptive, he said he was concerned.

The Herald visited the camp at Seafield School and found the area to be clean and tidy.

One member of the community, a mum who did not wish to be named, said: “There’s no rights for travelling people. They should be more bothered about putting paedophiles away from children instead of worrying about travelling people.

“I don’t know what they’re complaining about. We’re here doing nothing to nobody, we don’t let our children out misbehaving – they’re right here where we can see them. We go into a shop and we don’t get civilisation. We just have no rights because we’re travelling people.”

The Herald contacted Mclaughlin Construction for comment but no one responded when we went to print.