GYPSIES threatened to attack a farmer and set his tractor on fire because he was muckspreading his field next to their encampment, it has been alleged.

Farmer David Percival, of Home Farm, Bostock, was terrified when the travellers began to jump on top of his tractor and verbally abuse him.

He says they threatened to beat him, burn his tractor and wreck his farm if he did not stop spreading muck on his own field.

Hundreds of travellers have pitched about 40 caravans on the farmland in Winsford which is leased by Vale Royal Borough Council to Mr Percival and his wife Ann.

They arrived at the site, which is next to a roundabout on the junction of Road One at Winsford Industrial Estate and Bostock Road, on Sunday evening just after 8pm.

Mr Percival, who has lived at the farm for 11 years, said: "We have never seen anything like this before. There must be about 40 caravans and more are arriving by the minute.

"The first thing I knew about them was when I spotted a Mercedes driving about on the field.

"I approached the driver and he said he was a developer thinking about buying the land but I could tell by the way he was dressed and his accent that he was lying.

"So I put a thick chain and padlock on the gate but they must have cut it off because when I came back 15 minutes later they were pitching up their

caravans.

"Then, when I was spreading muck on Sunday morning gypsies of all ages, some in their 50s and 60s and others in their 30s, began to climb on the tractor.

"There were also kids jumping on it and they were giving as much abuse as their parents.

"I had already spread a quarter of the field before they arrived but wanted to finish it off and the police said I was quite within my rights to do so.

"But I was threatened by a whole gang of them when I tried to do my work. So I phoned the police again and they offered to send escorts out to protect me while I did it but it's just not worth it.

"The gypsies said if I spread the field, I would have no farm left. We are just hoping that they will leave otherwise we will have to take out a court order to get them moved.

"They are damaging the field by driving on it and leaving rubbish. And even when they do go, I will be too frightened to cut the grass in case they've left anything metal on it which could damage thousands of pounds worth of equipment.

"I could have coped with a few of them but there's just too many. They're causing havoc."

WINSFORD councillor Kath Watson has urged Vale Royal Borough Council to set up a site for gypsies in Winsford to stop them pitching their caravans on private land.

Her proposal comes after hundreds of gypsies settled on farmland next to Winsford Industrial Estate on Sunday.

Kath is councillor for the Wharton ward which covers the area where the gypsies are staying.

She said: "I think that there should be gypsy camps in every county in England. In fact, every borough should have one.

"If there was a place for them to go we would not have problems like this."

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