Travellers have returned to a multi-million-pound development site in Perth, despite efforts by council chiefs to block off the entrance.
A fleet of around a dozen caravans set up camp at the council’s flagship Food and Drink Park more than two months ago.
Perth and Kinross Council served notice on the group, giving them 24 hours to leave. However, the authority agreed to grant a reprieve from eviction when members promised to leave before the start of June.
When the site was briefly cleared, local authority engineers installed three large concrete barriers at the entrances of the under-construction estate.
But the heavy barricade was shifted to allow a new convoy of about eight vehicles onto the site. It is believed a digger may have been used to move the barrier.
The council said it is now preparing to issue a fresh legal notice, ordering the group off the land.
Officers will also consider fresh ways to block off the site and prevent further camps.
A spokeswoman said: “We are aware that an encampment has recently been set up at the Food and Drink Park site after a period of vacancy.
“We will monitor the site and serve notice on the Gypsy/Travellers.”
She added: “Bollards have previously been installed to deter any encampments being set up and we will look again at these arrangements once the site has been cleared.”
Just weeks before the Travellers’ arrival, the council announced that construction work for the specialist Food and Drink Park – the only one of its kind in Scotland – would be completed in July.
The £1.8 million contract to build units on the site was awarded to Forfar-based Andrew Shepherd Construction Ltd. Work started on site in January and is expected to last 25 weeks.
The council also confirmed it has abandoned long-standing plans to establish a new dedicated halting site for Travellers.
Officers had been searching for a suitable site to offer the travelling community an authorised stopping point with access to power and water facilities, while cutting down on illegal camps popping up across the region.
But the local authority will instead put the £46,000 earmarked for the project into improving existing camps at Double Dykes, on the western edge of Perth, and Bobbin Mill in private woods at Pitlochry.
The plan for a new site was quietly killed off during talks late last year.
It is understood the council had trouble finding a community in Perthshire which was willing to have a Travellers’ site on its doorstep.
