Homeless set up camp near busy roundabout
A GROUP of jobless and homeless men from eastern Europe have set up a camp for the winter in a patch of woods just yards from one of the busiest roundabouts in Northamptonshire.
Three men from Slovakia and one from Poland have pitched tents on land between Rushmere Road and the A45 .
When approached by the Chronicle & Echo yesterday, one of the Slovak campers, Karisko Vojtech said he had been unable to find employment in Northampton and had been living in the camp for the past three weeks.
A spokesman for Northampton Borough Council said a homeless team and representatives from CAN, the drug, alcohol and homeless charity, had already visited the camp to talk to the group and see what help and support could be offered.
The spokesman said: "We understand that they have recently lost their jobs and consequently their homes.
"While we are under no legal obligation to help them, we are doing all we can to get them back into employment and find them accommodation in the private rented sector."
The ward county councillor Stephen Legg (Con, Weston) said he had sympathy with the men if they were in the country legally and wanted to work in Northampton.
Councillor Legg said: "It is coming up to winter and people should not be camping in woods near a busy road. It is a not a situation that I would like to continue indefinitely."
In April, a group of students and unemployed people were evicted from from a site in Delpare Country Park after they set up a camp by the side of a lake.
The group subsequently built a camp in woods which run alongside the A45 close to the village of Hardingstone, an area popular with dog walkers.
Editor's Note: Commenting has been disabled on this story due to the nature of some of the comments, as has previously happened with stories of this nature.
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Weather for Northampton
Saturday 26 May 2012
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