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East Leeds: Blow to rugby club as travellers return
A junior rugby club fears its homecoming hopes have been dashed after a travellers' convoy invaded their beloved pitch for the second time in five months.
More than a dozen caravans moved onto the grounds at the former Copperfields College in Cross Green on Friday, despite a council injunction banning them from the site earlier this year still standing.
High Court bailiffs are set to swoop on the site to enforce the existing injunction.
Eyewitnesses said the surrounding fencing had been broken through as the vans rolled into the field from 7.30am
East Leeds Rugby Club, whose 13 junior teams play at the ground, was forced to decamp to the pitches at Fearnville Community Centre in July after 60 travellers' caravans moved onto and wrecked their usual home.
The encampment stayed for two months and was only moved on after THREE failed attempts by Leeds City Council to get court orders.
A massive clean-up of the previous wreckage is still ongoing, but now the rugby club's bosses fear their hopes of an eagerly-awaited homecoming may have been set back even further.
Malcolm Waite, club president at East Leeds Rugby Club, said the unwelcome return was a "terrible blow. We were having it cleaned up from (the travellers'] last visit to prepare for rugby for next summer."
"This will definitely set us back again. It could take six months again, it was not even cleared up yet (from the previous incident]. I am absolutely gutted by this news. We pushed so hard and thought we had overcome it."
The club currently pays 100 a week to hire the two rugby pitches at Fearnville Community Centre twice a week.
All its money comes from fundraising and donations. The club did not pay to play at the Copperfields site because it is designated a school playfield.
The YEP reported in July that the club's 200-plus junior rugby league players had been left without a pitch to play on after travellers occupied the site for two months.
Leeds City Council tried and failed three times to take court action against the encampment, eventually succeeding in getting a three-month injunction.
A Leeds City Council spokesman said of the latest encampment: "The existing court order, acquired by the council to evict travellers from
the former Copperfields College site earlier this year, still stands.
"We have visited the site and the High Court bailiff will serve notice of eviction this afternoon (Friday) to remove the travellers on Monday morning."
One Cross Green resident said nearby householders were "hopping mad" at the travellers'' return and said the site should have been properly secured after their last visit.
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Weather for Leeds
Wednesday 08 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -7 C to 0 C
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