NEARLY £20,000 has been spent evicting travellers from Bolton and clearing up in their wake over the last three years.

And the figure for the last 10 years is nearly £65,000, according to statistics released by Bolton Council.

The sum is made up from legal fees spent seeking eviction notices against travellers from the courts and the cost of clean-up operations to remove building waste and household refuse, which has regularly been left behind by travellers at camps.

Travellers have set up a string of illegal camps on council-owned playing fields at Hulton Lane, Over Hulton.

The latest occasion was last month when Bolton Council had to use a digger to remove building waste travellers had left behind.

Grass on parts of the site was damaged by vehicles.

Councillors said the money clearing up after travellers could have been spent on protecting the worst-hit vandalised areas of open land in borough.

Cllr Andy Morgan, who represents the Hulton ward, said: "We have been told that it would cost in the region of £50,000 to secure Hulton Lane playing fields with fencing and the council seems very reluctant to spend this money.

"But now the true cost of removing travellers from open land has been revealed, it's pretty clear that continually paying to remove travellers rather than preventing them from gaining access in the first place is a false economy.

"Hulton Lane is just one of a number of places across the borough that has had problems with travellers. On at least three occasions every year, it has been a no-go zone for people living nearby."

The figures were released by Bolton Council under the Freedom of Information Act following a request by the Bolton Evening News.