A group of Travellers staying in Inverness have said it’s people “haven’t been very nice” as they opened up about their experience of the Highland Capital.
They arrived last week and set up an encampment at Torvean Park, where they told The P&J that they were “on holiday”.
The group left the site by Monday – but sparked anger after accusations they had left 20 bags of rubbish behind and churned-up the grass.
Following their Torvean Park stay, they have now moved to an area of land near Burger King at the Retail Park.
They told the P&J today that they will leave the site “as they found it” and have asked people to stop the “abuse” as they visit the city.
Travellers open up during Inverness Retail Park stay
The P&J visited the encampment on Tuesday afternoon to speak to the travellers.
A young man celebrating his 20th birthday invited us inside the camp.
He said that he goes by the nickname JD and that he was from South Wales.
“Maybe come down to my neck of the woods sometime,” he offered.
When asked about the anger about allegations of rubbish and damage left behind at Torvean Park, he replied: “Well, it was very muddy, so getting on and off was quite difficult.
“But now we’re on a bit of hard standing.
“We’ll leave it as we found it.
“We’re allowed to put the rubbish in bags. The owner, we spoke with him, and he’s given us a week, so there shouldn’t be any problems.”
‘We’re only human beings’: Inverness Travellers ask for ‘abuse’ to cease
We asked him why they chose Inverness for their stay.
He replied: “Just travelling round to a part of the world I’d never been to before.
“Just thought I’d come down to see what it’s like, see what the people are like.”
However, he claims that “so far they’ve not proven very nice”.
“We’re only friendly people. We don’t mean any harm to anyone. We’ll leave it all nice and tidy,” he said.
JD explained that he is “not comfortable” saying where they will go next because then they’ll “get abuse in the next place”.
He explained: “We get abuse all the time, we’re only human beings at the end of the day.
“We don’t do anything different than everyone else, but they’re putting us on Facebook and abusing us.
“We’re not bad people. We’re not different to anyone else.”
We asked him if he wanted to share a message with the people in Inverness.
He said: “Please stop putting us on the groups, stop putting us on Facebook because it feels we’re not normal human beings.
“We keep being put over Facebook like we’re animals.”
Highland Council aware of ‘unauthorised encampment at the Inverness retail park’
A Highland Council spokesperson said: “We are aware of an unauthorised encampment at the Inverness retail park.
“Our staff are liaising with the people involved and progressing the ‘Policy on supporting cooperation and managing unauthorised camps’ which sets out the multi-agency responsibilities and arrangements for responding to roadside encampments.”
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