A COUNCIL is waiting to assess the level of damage at a new nature reserve after travellers had stayed on the site.
Staff from Denbighshire County Council’s property and countryside services will be tasked with drafting a repair bill for Rhuddlan Nature Reserve following a two-week occupation by travellers.
Officials served the group of travellers with papers last Thursday with ordering them to vacate the 17-acre site.
While some members of the community have left a sizable group remain and Denbighshire County Council hopes the case will be heard at court this week.
The reserve was due to host its official opening on Saturday September 11 but organisers were forced to cancel the ceremony while the travellers remained on the site.
Brenda Taylor, chairwoman of Rhuddlan Environment Group, who along with volunteers and support from other local groups and councils, helped to establish the £144,000 reserve which features a pond, 7,000 shrubs and trees, information boards and viewing platforms.
She said: “It’s a total mess.
“The clean-up has got to be paid for by someone and who is that going to be I wonder?
“It has been heartbreaking to see the site devastated in this manner. “The official opening was due to take place on September 11 but now it will have to wait until he clean-up has been completed.”
Mrs Taylor helped formally catalogue the damage and presented to representatives from Denbighshire’s environmental crime department.
She witnessed damage to telephone exchange grids and manholes, mounted along the reserve’s cycle track, along with what she claimed was a 25-metre stretch of land covered in rubbish including concrete and other domestic waste, which she said served as evidence of flytipping by the traveller group.
She called on Denbighshire County Council to strengthen security on the site to avoid a repeat of the invasion.
She said: “They should never have been allowed onto the site.
“I’m horrified that they were allowed to get onto the site in the first place.
“It’s an absolute disgrace.”
Mrs Taylor also called don the authority to provide special designated areas for travellers to use.
She said: “The county council should look into providing stop off areas for travellers to use to avoid this from happening again.”
A spokeswoman for Denbighshire County Council said: “Once the travellers have left, the site will be cleared and site security will be reviewed bearing in mind that there is a fine balance between site security and allowing access for all i.e. on foot, bicycle, wheelchair or disabled buggy.
"There are plans for a fold down bollard to be used in conjunction with a overhead barrier.”