Travellers driving French cars take over Welsh HOSPITAL car park. They say they're on holiday but are they fleeing French crackdown?

Staff car park at the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport blocked by caravans

French travellers with 14 mobile homes say they'll move on 'shortly'

Hundreds of NHS hospital staff were turned away from work this morning

Hospital chiefs taking legal advice over how they might eject travellers



Hospital visitor says: 'Someone could suffer because a doctor is late'



French travellers who prevented doctors from parking outside a hospital when they parked their caravans there say they are in the UK 'on holiday' and plan to go home soon.

Speaking from their mobile homes in the car park outside Newport's Royal Gwent Hospital, one of the gypsies said: 'We will not stay long - this is a holiday. We live in Nice and Paris and will go home soon.'

News of their bizarre holiday choice comes a day after the Mail revealed how hordes of Roma travellers had been moved on by French police from camps in cities including Paris and Marseille.



The gypsies, who set up camp over the weekend with 14 caravans and an array of luxury cars including two Mercedes, a BMW X6, and a Volkswagen, blocked hundreds of NHS staff from parking outside the hospital, which is taking legal advice on how to move them on.



The travellers, who say they are 'on holiday', have set up camp in the staff car park of Royal Gwent Hospital

Staff at the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport can't park at work today because French gypsies have set up camp Cars with French numberplates and 14 caravans have appeared in the NHS hospital's staff car park More than 3,400 staff work at the Royal Gwent Hospital, above, which serves a population of 600,000

Hospital spokesman Julian Hayman said legal advice was being sought over how to eject the travellers but warned staff that the 300-space car park would be closed in the meantime, possibly for as long as three days.

When asked whether the hospital would have the power to forcibly eject the caravans, Mr Hayman told MailOnline: 'We are in discussions at the moment with our legal team on that front.'

He said medical staff would need to make alternative arrangements for parking until the caravans, which arrived over the weekend and are taking up 65 of the spaces at the Whiteheads car park, moved on.



More than 3,400 staff work at the Royal Gwent, which has 750 beds and serves a population of more than 600,000.



A hospital worker, who didn’t want to be named, said: 'Finding a parking space is bad enough normally without this happening first thing.



'I find it infuriating this situation can be allowed to continue until the families decide to move themselves on.



'There are doctors and other medical staff who work on emergency cases around the clock.



'They are being forced to park some distance away all because a group of French travellers fancied the spot to set up camp.'

Unusual destination: The Welsh car park has been sequestered by 14 caravans and a series of luxury cars

The traveller community have blocked the staff car park and told hospital bosses they will 'move on shortly' A gleaming BMW thought to belong to one of the French travellers sits in the car park reserved for doctors A visitor to the hospital said: 'Someone could suffer because a doctor is late for their shift.'

Terry Jones, 64, who was visiting a relative in hospital, said: 'Someone could suffer because a doctor is late for their shift.



'It just just shouldn’t be allowed to happen.



'It may not be politically correct to say it but these people never seem to think about the impact it will have on the rest of us.



'I hope they realise what a nuisance they are causing to the staff and move on soon.'

Not moving on yet: It is hoped that the travellers will move on by the middle of the week

Newport City Council said the creation of permanent sites for gypsies and travellers in the region went out to consultation last month as part of their local development plan (LDP).



The final version of the plan will go before full council later this year and will be submitted to the Welsh Government for examination.

This weekend the Mail told how French police moved 90 Roma gypsy families on from a large camp on the edge of the city of Marseille in the south of France.

A ghost town of ramshackle huts, rubbish, wood and piles of tyres was left after the travellers moved on, days after police in Greece removed a blonde girl from Roma gypsies in Greece who claimed to be her parents, despite DNA tests proved that this was not the case.

The blonde girl, known only as Maria, has been taken into care while Greek police - who found a handgun and balaclava at the house of her adoptive parents Hristos Salis, 39, and Eleftheria Dimopoulou, 40, try to trace her real parents.

