Relief for Uttoxeter as travellers are moved on from course by bailiffs

Uttoxeter's meeting on Friday is set to go ahead as planned after the group of travellers who occupied the racecourse were forced to leave the site.

As the racecourse sits on private land, the police were unable to force a removal and track officials had to call in bailiffs to move on the travellers after four days of occupation.

There were six caravans and numerous other vehicles camped at the racecourse entrance and their presence prevented the site being used as a Covid-19 testing centre.

Uttoxeter turns to bailiffs to remove travellers preventing Covid-19 testing

Uttoxeter's general manager Brian Barrass said: "We had to employ bailiffs and they served the papers to them. They were camped outside the turnstiles in the car parking area. It made life a bit difficult for our team to continue working and the clean-up operation took a full day."

A number of outbuildings at the course were reported to have suffered damage, and Barrass was forced to call in the police on Tuesday after a car was driven on to the track.

"Just before they left one of them drove up the track to gain access to a hosepipe to wash their car and I had to get the police down," he said.

"It was concerning but we got them off pretty much straight away and luckily there wasn't any damage to the track."

The racecourse has been used as a testing centre at various times throughout the Covid-19 pandemic and although testing was temporarily halted, it has now resumed.

Fellow jumps track Warwick had its own problems with travellers in 2018 when around 30 caravans and 80-100 people descended on the owners' and trainers' car park.

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