Travellers set to be told to move from site

Travellers who moved onto a site near a nuclear weapons facility are likely to be told to leave within weeks, a High Court judge said.

West Berkshire Council first told people using the site south of Reading Road, opposite the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), to stop work in November 2025, following development earlier that year.

AWE said the arrivals were potentially affecting its work and the council was granted an interim injunction to stop further development at the site in December 2025.

Judge Sylvia de Bertodano said she had sympathy with the families affected but they could not be allowed to "ride roughshod" over the court's previous order.

She was told by AWE that the presence of people at the site was affecting its Off-Site Emergency Plan and she said it was "clear" their presence could impact others' safety.

The judge has she is minded to tell all families to leave the site by 5 October, subject to hearing submissions from them.

That is with the exception of a family that was living on a plot before the injunction in December.