A Glastonbury resident has urged Somerset County Council to take action to stop the land around the Tor being "brutalised" by people living in "£60,000 caravans".

Joey Barrington lives near a footpath which allows residents and tourists to approach the Tor from the northern side.

Mr Barrington has made a string of accusations relating to antisocial behaviour on Stone Down Road, which runs alongside the Tor – including parked cars blocking an ambulance which was taking his young daughter to hospital.

He also alleged that an illegal encampment was creating havoc for residents, with narcotics being consumed and human waste being left at the roadside.

The county council said it was working with multiple other partners to find a solution to the problem, and promised to take action before the summer.

Mr Barrington, who was born and bred in Glastonbury, addressed a virtual full council meeting on Wednesday morning (May 5), fleshing out his numerous concerns about the Tor and the surrounding area.

He said: "There has been extreme abuse of parking restrictions – firstly with the double yellow lines being ignored and covered over (after being cleaned by the town council, they were still ignored).

"The clearway was then put in to alleviate this, but sadly it backfired and failed massively. Eighty per cent of the new clearway signs were defaced and vandalised three times, and were then just taken off and stolen."

Clearways are sections of the UK road network where no stopping is permitted at any time, in order to encourage freer movement of traffic.

Despite efforts to enforce this on Stone Down Lane, Mr Barrington said "a full-blown encampment" had been living on the roadside for the best part of a year.

He said: "On a day with nice weather, there can be up to 50 vehicles parked there – and it has been increasing since the clearway was implemented, creating a terrible atmosphere with refuse and extensive human waste on the roadside.

"It's now become a serious hazard for emergency vehicles. This was massively highlighted when an ambulance couldn't get past to access our house and had to be re-directed a longer way round. My six-month-old daughter was rushed to hospital suffocating with Covid-19.

"Local farmers have had their land taken over, misused and abused for camping and the dumping of refuse or waste.

"Local residents have stopped walking their dogs through that area, and have pretty much stopped going up to the Tor due to the intimidation and abuse they have received.

"The local ice cream man was set upon a few days ago and was severely threatened and abused.

"He has sold ice creams by the Tor for the past ten years and will not come anyway near it now – this has ruined a main part of his business."

Mr Barrington said members of this encampment had also sprayed "aggressive and offensive graffiti" around the site, which included some disparaging comments about the local police.

He further alleged that this community's activities were damaging the town's attempts to attract tourists – including the creation of the Glastonbury Way circular walk as part of the town's £25 million Towns Fund programme.

He said: "The Glastonbury Way cannot be finished as there are vans parked where the new information boards and benches are meant to be put.

"The local caravan sites, which are now open, are already getting negative feedback from tourists about the state of Stone Down Lane and the general atmosphere around that area of the Tor.

"There is extreme noise at night-time from drumming and general partying, with marijuana and other narcotics being smoked in public during the day and night on the roadside.

"The main culprits that are living up here, inciting a lot of things, are living in £60,000 caravans – they certainly have not got a shortage of where they could go in terms of a caravan site they could pay for.

"The Glastonbury Tor is Somerset's jewel in the crown and it has been absolutely brutalised for the last year."

Council leader David Fothergill said he was "acutely aware" of the problems facing Glastonbury residents, but added there was "no easy solution".

He said: "We know the Glastonbury community has always been a tolerant society, but we acknowledge now that patience is being sorely tried and recognise that this tolerance is frequently being tested and exceeded.

"With an ease of lockdown restrictions and new guidance emerging, we are now hopefully moving into a new phase where we can look again at the options available to us.

"Our multi-agency working group is looking at a multitude of potential measures, which will be communicated at the appropriate point in time before the summer.

"We are proactively seeking to come with short- and long-term solutions that work for everyone."