A councillor has called for an official travellers site near a north-east town after a convoy of caravans sprung up on the grounds of a brand new academy.
An unofficial encampment has appeared at the £36million Ellon Academy Community Campus for the second time this year.
The travellers pitched up on a stretch of land on the road up to the school, at Cromleybank.
Last night Ellon and District councillor, Gillian Owen, called for measures to be taken to prevent future “incursions” at the school.
The Conservative said: “I am obviously disappointed that the travellers have pitched up again, particularly as it is not just a school it is a community campus.
“It is not an appropriate place for them to set up an unauthorised camp. Measures need to be put into place to stop this type of incursion there.
“At the risk of making an unpopular comment, if Aberdeenshire Council had a transit site they wouldn’t be able to set up an unauthorised camp and if they did police would have to act to move them on.”
A group of travellers also set up camp at the school in early May.
Last month plans for a business park and hotel at Balmacassie in Ellon were thrown out because they did not allocate space for a traveller’s site.
Weeks earlier the council’s gypsy-traveller sub-committee agreed to take forward a planning application for an official halting site at Aikey Brae, near Old Deer.
Chairman of the committee, councillor Allan Hendry, said: “Other sites were discounted. We have got to find some place for travellers to go otherwise they will keep pitching up at unauthorised encampments.
“I am sorry to see they have gone and done it again there. I have some sympathy for them, sometimes places are blocked off and they have nowhere else to go.
“Really, they shouldn’t be there.”
Chairman of the Ellon and District Community Council, Peter Mackie, said: “It is disappointing that they have chosen to park up there again. The whole thing about travellers camps is still up in the air at the moment, we have just had an application refused because of not having a site. I don’t know if that is the answer.
“Right at the moment there is no easy solution. Everyone knows we have to have travellers sites but nobody wants it.”
A council spokesman said an officer would be sent to the school grounds to speak to the travellers, and that legal action would be likely if they did not move on.
