CHILDREN from schools across the town missed out on an athletics event when travellers settled at the Abbey Stadium.

The middle school event was cancelled last week after the football pitch next to the sports venue was taken over by about 20 caravans of travelling families.

Walkwood Middle School headteacher Peter Garner said they were warned by other schools not to send their children to the trials because dogs had apparently been set loose by the travellers.

"Those are grounds that are used by children and I'm very surprised these travellers' rights seem to be more important than the rights of all the children in the town," he said.

"We have now had to re-arrange it, it really has had a seriously disruptive effect on a huge number of children."

And St Bede's Middle School's head of PE, Matt Russell, who organised the event, said it was a huge disappointment and had affected about 350 youngsters.

He said: "We have re-arranged it for next week, we are just hoping they have gone by then -- if they haven't, I do not know what we will do."

The problems follow a similar situation last month when a school sports event was forced to relocate due to travellers settling on the same site.

Redditch Council's sports services manager Dave Wheeler said the environmental health department had put the usual procedures in place to remove the travellers. He also said they were planning measures to prohibit travellers' access to the site in future but they were not fully implemented yet.

Mr Wheeler said incidents seemed to have lessened since the first day the travellers arrived and there was now on-site security during opening hours to make staff and customers feel more secure.

He said last week's event was cancelled because outdoor facilities carried greater risks to people.

He added: "However, we will review this on a daily basis and hopefully make informed decisions on whether to allow usage of the track for events and general bookings while the travellers are still on site."