Travellers move onto empty HQ car park
TRAVELLERS have invaded the site of an abandoned fire control headquarters that was once to have been a centre for fire services in the East Midlands.
Caravans belonging to several families have set up camp at the mothballed regional fire hub in Castle Donington.
The site, which cost millions to build, had been earmarked as a regional base for Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service and neighbouring brigades before the project was scrapped by the Tory / Lib Dem coalition government in 2010 on account of its cost.
It has now, however, become home to a group of travellers, who police confirmed had moved onto the land on Sunday evening. On Tuesday afternoon, seven caravans could be seen in the site’s empty car park.
The force is monitoring the situation closely.
The three-storey building, in Warke Flatt at Willow Farm Business Park, was one of nine centres nationally commissioned by the Labour government of the time and was meant to serve the fire services of Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire.
The land, which has a 25-year lease, has been empty since its completion in 2007.