TRAVELLERS on a sports field next to a Southampton school have been warned that the bailiffs could move in at any time.
Courts granted the city council permission to remove the group yesterday - four weeks after they first moved on to the ground next to St Mark's School in Stafford Road, Shirley.
Officials have visited the site and warned the travellers that their time is running out.
The travellers refused to comment when approached by the Daily Echo.
A city spokesman said: "We have taken all the welfare needs of the travellers into consideration and have visited the site to let them know
private bailiffs will be coming in."
The eviction could cost city taxpayers up to £10,000 according to some estimates, after a legal wrangle over who should evict the travellers.
A spokesman for the city council branded the site's owners, the Civil Service Sports Council, disgraceful for failing to take steps to evict the travellers. The city council was forced to use an obscure piece of law to win the eviction notice - at the taxpayer's expense.
No one from the CSSC would comment.
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