Field ruined by visitors to gypsy fair (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Field ruined by visitors to gypsy fair

VISITORS to this month's Stow gypsy horse fair left human waste in hundreds of places across a field they had camped in, disgusted councillors have said.

The human excrement was deposited over about a half-mile-square area of Stow-on-the-Wold following the town's gypsy horse fair, it has been claimed.

Robert Barnett, one of Stow's district councillors, said this was one of two main concerns raised at the meeting of a working party formed to improve the biannual one-day event held on a gypsy-owned field in neighbouring Maugersbury parish every May and October.

He said visiting youngsters' intimidation of residents and shopkeepers was the other concern raised by the party, comprising representatives of Cotswold District, Gloucestershire County, Stow Town and Maugersbury Parish councils and the police.

Cllr Barnett said members were also worried about the fair's growing size and the increasingly early arrival of the gypsies.

He said more than 80 traders in the town had signed a petition calling for the end of the fair, which attracts thousands of gypsies who camp and trade on the Maugersbury Road field and the roadsides outside, blocking the route with crowds.

Saying taxpayers would pay the "significant" costs of the post-fair clear-up operation, he added: "There was fouling over a half-mile-radius from the field, in literally hundreds of places."

He said the party would pass its findings to the district and county councils to help them improve the fair.

Gypsy Council chairman, Charles Smith, said local authorities' failure to provide temporary toilets caused the excrement problem.

He said: "They should work with the field's owners, let them put in a roadway, water and toilets but they have no intention of working with the gypsy community."