Most of us would check into a hotel if we had to spend a few nights away from home.

Travellers take their homes with them and pitch camp wherever they fancy.

So when a group descended on Oxford for a wedding at the weekend, there was no need to book expensive hotel rooms -- they just crashed their way into South Park and got ready to party.

Meanwhile, frantic phone calls from local residents brought the usual response from the authorities -- total inertia.

This problem is not new and it is getting worse, yet nothing is being done to solve it. Travellers can barge their way on to anyone's land whenever they want -- and they know it.

Moves to evict the group in South Park will not start until today, even though they arrived on Friday evening and will no doubt have vanished by the time any paperwork is served.

The law has got to be tightened up so that travellers can be moved on immediately they set up on someone else's land.

But that cannot happen without local authorities recognising that they must provide adequate authorised sites for the travellers.

That, of course, if a political timebomb, as nobody wants them in their back yard.

But the hard fact is that if there's no designated site for them to stop at, they'll just choose one of their own.