MORAY COUNCIL IS SET to move against a group of travellers after they removed a bollard and pitched up alongside the new £300,000 Elgin/Lhanbryde cycle path.
The caravans have located on land alongside the path at the back of the Moycroft Industrial Estate – prompting claims by the local authority that their driving vehicles over the path is causing a safety risk.
A Moray Council spokesman is being reported as having said the local authority is responding to a complaint from a member of the public who came close to be hit by a vehicle crossing the path.
The spokesman added: “The popular traffic-free path is used by hundreds of cyclists and walkers – our first concerns is the safety of path users.”
The travellers, however, insist that they have pitched on an area of land that is not being used and claim they are not in anybody’s way.
Under current law in Scotland, the travellers cannot be legally forced from the land as Moray Council has not provided an official camp in the region that they can use. Plans to create such a facility failed several years ago and no alternative has ever been brought forward.
The Council say that they will replace the bollard which is designed to prevent vehicles accessing the cycle path.