Traveller nightmare
Villagers fear camp is set to double in size
HER doctors are said
to be pleased with her
progress.
And as Kylie Minogue
enjoyed a shopping trip in
Paris, she looked pretty
pleased herself.
The singer and her mother
Carol enjoyed an hour browsing in the Chanel store before
having lunch at the George V
hotel.
Miss Minogue, 37, who is being
treated for breast cancer at the
Institute Gustave- Roussy, is
believed to have been given some
good news in the last few days.
‘ Her doctors have told her that she has responded really well to the treatment and that she is doing better than they had even dared to hope for,’ said a close friend.
Miss Minogue was diagnosed with cancer in her home town of Melbourne in May. Her mother and boyfriend Olivier Martinez have been at her side since she arrived in Paris for treatment. VILLAGERS are threatening to barricade roads amid fears that a controversial travellers’ site will double in size.
Residents in Cottenham, Cambridgeshire, endured crime and anti-social behaviour after hundreds of travellers moved to a 20-acre site nearly three years ago. Now contractors have started fencing off a nearby 18-acre site after the travellers bought the land from a farmer.
Fearing a fresh invasion, locals urged the council to seek an injunction halting the development at Smithy Fen. But South Cambridgeshire District Council will not act until it has proof travellers are moving in. A spokesman said: ‘If they begin to dig trenches or deliver hardcore that will be enough evidence.’
Terry Brownbill, of Cottenham Residents’ Association, said the council needs ‘to get a grip before the travellers use their usual guerilla tactics of setting up home overnight’.
He added: ‘Lots of villagers have told me they are prepared to barricade the site if necessary. We are talking about tractors and combine harvesters – which will allow travellers to come and go but will stop trucks with hardcore going through.’
Around 200 travellers live on the site, but at times there have been up to 800 there. They set up without permission, then make retrospective planning applications. When applications fail, they often appeal, successfully citing human rights laws.
The council has set aside £850,000 over the past two years for lawyers’ fees, bailiffs and other costs. Tensions reached a peak in December 2003 when postman Peter Stone was beaten to death at a pub. No one has been charged with his murder.
One of the travellers said yesterday: ‘ We’re only fencing the field off to put some horses there.’