I WOULD like to respond to the article in the Winsford and Middlewich Guardian on September 9, regarding the further problems caused by the gypsies invading more local farmland, then calling for police protection when the rightful owners attempted to get them to leave.

The gypsies complained that farm manure was a hazard to their health, when for many weeks they have themselves been creating a far worse health hazard to our local children.

By the gypsies' own admission in the article, their caravans have no toilet facilities and they go outside to perform their 'toilet'.

For many weeks they have been encamped both inside the grounds and, currently, beside Woodford Lodge High School. Therefore these are the areas used as their toilets - the same areas traversed by the pupils on their way to and from the school.

Anyone who has had the misfortune to walk on land after gypsies have left will probably have shared my nauseating experience of treading in human excrement.

At the very least local environmental health departments must be empowered to remove gypsies immediately from public places on health grounds and particularly from areas frequented by our children.

It really is imperative to lobby both local and national government for protection from these intruders before there is an outbreak of disease.

Gypsies can move on if they don't like an area while we are left with the problems they create.

Concerned local.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.