ILLEGAL travellers’ sites have been a problem in Newport for a number of years with gipsies setting up home in undesignated areas all over the city.

In September a family was moved on from the city’s much-loved Tredegar House after a two-month stay, while there are currently around ten caravans on Welsh Government owned land at Phoenix Park, off Corporation Road.

Cllr John Richards raised concerns about the illegal site at Tuesday’s meeting fearing the caravans could deter a potential developer from buying the former Pirelli site next door.

He said: “The sale of that site was imminent and 200 homes were going to be built.

“I wonder if that will take place because what developer will want to buy a site with caravans on it and be left with a call to clear it?”

In 2004 a group of gipsies caused outrage when they camped in the grounds of Tredegar House just weeks before the start of the National Eisteddfod.

The move sparked fears they would still be there when 150,000 visitors came to the city for the festival but they moved on a few days later. The same group left a scene of devastation near the LG semi-conductor plant in Marshfield just weeks before, which left the council with a £100,000 clean-up bill.

In 2009 a family who set up camp at the forming Maltings site near the city bridge on the SDR, costing the council £50,000 to clean up.

The council does not have a designated gipsy site and information given to councillors says police have previously been unwilling to assist in the eviction of illegal encampments as there is no alternative place for them to go.

The council says an authorised site would help it tackle this problem and cut the bill for evictions and clearing up.