A COURT order has been allowed for the removal of vehicles parked at a site in Shaftesbury.

Dorset Council asked magistrates to approve action to remove unauthorised vehicles and people from a site at Orchid View, off Salisbury Road, during a hearing on Wednesday (October 2).

The order, under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, is permitted if the authority has issued a notice to vacate the site under section 77.

Magistrates sitting in Poole allowed the order.

Now, at 24 hours’ notice, the council may be able to take steps “reasonably necessary” to ensure the order is complied.

That can include entering the land specified and taking, “in relation to any vehicle or property to be removed in pursuance of the order, such steps for securing entry and rendering it suitable for removal as may be so specified”.

Anyone who “wilfully obstructs” the order being imposed could be found to have committed an offence.

In allowing the order, the court ruled: “Any vehicle or other property present on Orchid View, Salisbury Road, Shaftesbury to be removed together with any person residing in it.”

Dorset Council has been approached for comment.