ABUSE was hurled at visitors and staff at a leisure centre which was forced to close after an illegal encampment was set up in a neighbouring car park.

Staff at Malvern Splash have been praised for the way they dealt with intimidating behaviour, however, for safety reasons the Priory Road leisure centre had to close.

Travellers originally set up camp at Three Counties Showground on Saturday (August 3) where two arrests were made for common assault and theft.

The same group then moved onto the car park opposite Malvern Splash on Sunday (August 4) where there were further reports of abuse and staff being intimidated. 

Police sergeant Jason Maiden, from Malvern Safer Neighbourhood Team, said: “It is thankfully rare that an unlawful encampment causes issues in our community, but whenever there are concerns, we will always work robustly to deal with them.

“I am pleased to say that, working with MHDC, we have moved on this group that was causing ASB and disruption at the Splash site within 24 hours, which shows we will always act swiftly.”

West Mercia Police and Malvern Hills District Council (MHDC) moved the group yesterday evening (Monday).

Originally, the council gave the group until Tuesday morning to move.

However, police used their Section 60 powers and directed the group to leave earlier because of concerns about further disruptive behaviour.

Amanda Smith, head of community and parking services at MHDC, said: “Malvern Hills District Council visited the unauthorised encampment to undertake the appropriate checks at the site.

“The district council would like to recognise the police's role in supporting this matter and also acknowledge the professionalism of Freedom Leisure staff in managing what was a challenging situation, ensuring the safety of staff and customers alike.”

The swift action led to Malvern Splash officially opening again this morning at 8am, which was ahead of its planned opening time.

Rob Tyler, Freedom Leisure area manager, said: "We are delighted to announce that Malvern Splash was able to re-open at 8am today, following issues experienced with a group on-site causing damage, intimidating staff and engaging in abusive behaviour.

"We would like to thank our colleagues for dealing with the situation in a calm and measured manner and for the actions they had to take, following the advice received from Malvern Hills District Council and the police, to ensure all our staff and customers were safe.

"We’d also like to thank our customers for their patience and understanding and for the goodwill messages we’ve received in support of the staff at Malvern Splash."