DARLINGTON Borough Council is to get tough on travellers.

Immediate action is to be taken to block off certain open spaces in the town.

The council is to spend about £30,000 to deter increasing numbers of travellers forming illegal encampments. The move follows weeks of upset.

On Monday, council workmen started putting boulders around the edges of Springfield Park in Whinfield and protection is being increased at John Dixon Lane.

A businessman elsewhere in the area claimed he was losing money because travellers had pitched near his premises.

At Tuesday's meeting of the council's cabinet, an emergency report urged work at other sites.

John Buxton, development and environment director, recommended the extra work should be deferred until a strategy for dealing with travellers had been adopted.

But Coun Chris McEwan, cabinet member for community protection, said this was not good enough.

"We have people living next to these areas who have suffered flytipping, damage and anti-social behaviour," he said. "Now is the time to act."

Mr Buxton's report said, in the past, the numbers of travellers involved had been manageable. But this year "significantly" more had stayed for longer periods on illegal sites.

A total of nine sites had been occupied since the first arrivals in April. A site at Allington Way and McMullen Road had been considered as inappropriate for protection because of its location. But the area had been occupied twice with a lot of damage caused to grass through vehicles moving in heavy rain.

At John Dixon Lane, travellers shifted limestone blocks to get on to the land.

The extra sites earmarked for protection are at Alderman Crooks Park, McMullen Road and Allington Way, and Redhall.

* See also page 5.