GYPSIES are holding up work on a new building development at Horwich.

The gypsies are encamped in about a dozen caravans on a site at Pearlbrook Estate near the Iceland Frozen Food Centre after moving in on Sunday.

The site is owned by developers William Hargreaves Limited who were due to start work on 22 bungalows for the Hanover Housing Association.

"We have told them they are trespassing and on Sunday our managing director Bill Hargreaves visited the site and asked them to go" said Mr Kelvin Butterworth, developer manager for the company. "They promised to leave on Tuesday or Wednesday".

The company has contacted the local police and Bolton Council's Gypsy Liaison officer who has applied for a possession order which was due to be heard by Bolton magistrates today.

In the meantime the builders are working around their uninvited guests and have started altering the levels and constructing a perimeter security fence.

Mr Butterworth said gypsies are forever moving on to different sites around the borough and end u costing the company a lot of money. "They have no regard for property and leave behind a lot of rubbish, often materials used in connection with their businesses. We have to get workmen to go in and clean up after them and they are destroying our sites."

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