A FAMILY of Travellers have been told to leave their second site in Chester in less than a month.

The Townsley family had previously set up an unauthorised encampment last April on the site of the !Audacious Church on Sovereign Way, Chester.

Cheshire West and Chester Council successfully obtained a court order from Chester Magistrates Court ordering the family to leave the site, having failed to comply with an eviction notice.

But the family didn't move far, and set up an unauthorised encampment half a mile away at the grounds of the Fun4All soft play centre on Hartford Way, off Bumpers Lane. The centre is due to reopen on May 20.

Cheshire West and Chester Council has therefore gone through the same procedure as before, serving the family with an eviction notice and, when the family failed to comply with it by 5pm on May 1, applying for a removal order from Chester Magistrates Court on Wednesday, May 12.

The council's legal representative Sophie Fullerton told magistrates welfare checks had been carried out and there were no issues found.

Magistrates agreed to the council's application for a removal order.

A criminal offence is committed if Travellers fail to leave the land as soon as practicable after receiving a direction from the local authority to move, and they can be fined. Travellers can also be fined if they return to the land with their vehicle within three months.