A CONVOY of travellers turned up in Riverside Park overnight on Good Friday and remained there. While so far there is no obvious evidence of damage or rubbish - as has been left at other sites, notably Stoneham Lane - it should be questioned why the local council are either unwilling or unable to enforce their own bylaws?

If the local Scout group decided to camp out in the rec, I have no doubt that council officers would swarm in to remove them rapidly.

Having allowed this group to flout the bylaws, one wonders when we may expect to see a much larger party driving across the park at night.

The gate by the canoe centre has even been left open to aid their progress! It is not as if there are not several commercial sites around Southampton where these people could quite legally and acceptably pay to camp.

Judging by the quality of their caravans and 4x4s, one wonders if they are unable to pay a commercial rate?

As a local resident I may be accused of being a Nimby but backing on to the park I do not want my usually beautiful view to be impaired by groups of caravans or additional worries about security.

The major point is not particularly about this group but the possibility of this becoming a regular stopping off point for travellers, many of whom, as we have seen in the past, have absolutely no respect for the law, local residents or the land they fasten upon.

The bylaws were designed to protect residents from this sort of situation - why does the council not use them?

BITTERNE PARK RESIDENT (name and address supplied).