TRADERS and residents have urged Stow Town Council and Cotswold District Council to drop their velvet glove tactics and adopt a tougher approach to handling the twice-yearly Stow Fair.

While the increased policing of May's event was overwhelmingly applauded at a public meeting in the town on Tuesday, residents complained about many travellers and gipsies turning up more than a week in advance despite it being just a day's fair, and litter and human fouling throughout the town.

Antiques dealer Jack Baggott, said that while Stow's business community had suffered a 25 per cent increase in rates, with some almost doubling, they were having to put up with increased disruption from the fair which had attracted record numbers of travellers this year.

"The council has to take the matter in hand," said Mr Baggott. "We want a five-mile exclusion zone around Stow to keep caravans out until the day of the fair. They are arriving the week before, some up to two weeks in advance.

"There is no point in giving the owners of the field any more time to reduce the duration of stay by the travellers. We should start enforcement now.

"Also, there were obscene things going on in the churchyard with teenagers baring their bottoms in full view of diners at Stow Lodge, drinking, and smoking."

He pleaded for more policing for the churchyard in the future.

Mr Alan Holmes, who lives in Maugersbury, said: "For years we have heard things from the owners of the field, but there has not been much action or improvement from the gypsy side of things. Fouling is still a big problem. This year, one chemical toilet was emptied into a ditch.

"Numbers have increased dramatically and the gipsies are effectively putting two fingers up to authority."

Cllr Lynden Stowe, leader of the district council, told the meeting that negotiations had been taking place with the owners of the field to contain the fair and reduce the duration of stay.

"They have agreed not to open the fair in October until Monday. We have asked for a Tuesday start, although we were told this could take two or three years to work in practice.

"Bob Austin, chief executive of the district council, is taking them at their word. If they are put under pressure by early arrivals, it is up to the police to deal with them.

"I did take a walk around on Stow fair day in May and saw the problems with litter, so in October we will be making sure there is a quicker pick-up of litter in the town centre, perhaps with a mobile unit available.

"We want to see continued progress and we have no intention of reducing our efforts. We will give the field owners a chance to, but we see a regression in behaviour we will do something about it."

A show of hands among the more than 100 residents who attended the meeting showed they were overwhelmingly in favour of keeping caravans away from Stow until the Wednesday before the Fair.s

Vera Norwood, a former Mayor of Stow, said while litter was a problem at the fair, the field owners had cleared up well after the May event. "Litter isn't just a fair problem," she said. "I was in Trafalgar Square recently and you could hardly walk for stepping on litter. It's a universal problem, not just a fair problem."

Fair organiser Isaac Lovell was not available for comment as the Journal went to press.