LAND next to a York fire station is set to be made more secure after travellers set up home there for the third time.

Staff at Easingwold-based company Sodexho, which manages the site next to the Huntington retained fire station on the A1237 ring road, were today on stand-by with fence panels to secure the site when the caravans leave.

The landowners, LBS Fire Services Ltd, which rents adjacent land to North Yorkshire Fire Service, gained a possession order at York County Court on Tuesday, which was due to be posted on the site today.

According to the court order, everyone on the site has 24 hours to leave from the time it was posted.

However, one of the travellers, who did not want to be named, said the group had always planned to move out tomorrow in order to travel to Appleby Fair, which is held each June in Cumbria.

Val Creasey, facilities manager at Sodexho, said she was now bracing herself for another expensive clean-up operation.

She said: "They have been there for more than two weeks now. This is the third time this has happened in a year.

"The first time they were on their way to a wedding in Hull and they were only there for a couple of days.

"The second time was the same, but this time they have really made themselves at home.

"I know they have got to go somewhere, but as well as the issue of the security of the fire station, it's the mess they leave. The first time we had to get the council in to do a proper clean-up at great expense."

Ms Creasey said they were unable to fence off the site completely because a local farmer needed access to his land. However, the gate would soon be moved and the site made more secure.

North Yorkshire Fire Service spokesman Graham Buckle said the travellers had not caused the service significant problems because the station was not constantly manned.

He said: "Huntington is a retained station and the firefighters only come in when there's a fire call.

"However, there are now horses and children on the site, so we have had to warn everyone to be careful when they are driving in on a fire call so that they don't knock anybody over.

"It hasn't affected our response times at all.

"We also do training there on a Monday night and that hasn't been disrupted, but we do have quite a watchful audience for it."

Updated: 11:57 Saturday, May 28, 2005