Travellers have left an unauthorised camp on fields near York College.
Now City of York Council officials and the landowners are investigating damage to the area.
A section of fence in the fields off Sim Balk Lane has been torn down.
A concrete bollard that prevented vehicle access to a nature reserve owned by the college next to Dringthorpe Road was also moved.
Muddy tyre tracks and an uprooted fence post can also be seen.
The travellers arrived at the weekend. Earlier this week, they were issued with a ‘Direction to Leave’ notice by the council and had left by this morning.
Dringhouses and Woodthorpe ward councillor Stephen Fenton said they had left behind “a big clean-up and repair job”.
The land is owned by the college and All Saints School, which has changing rooms and pitches on the site.
Cllr Fenton told YorkMix: “It’s very disheartening to see the damage done to the fences and the playing fields.
“The money that will have to be spent on repairs by York College and All Saints School is money that now won’t be available to invest in young people’s education.”
He also said garden waste had been dumped in the nature reserve.
“The fly-tipping of green waste in the nearby nature reserve is a timely reminder that if someone turns up on your doorstep and offers to cut back a tree or a hedge, check their credentials and whether they have a valid waste carriers licence.”
Travellers have stayed on the area at least twice before in recent years.
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