Caravans set up outside Swindon Audi dealership, offer buyers more legroom than most of the cars inside

"A spokesperson for nobody in particular noted that this is believed to be the first time in Delta Business Park's history that anything parked there has depreciated less overnight than the cars for sale forty feet away."

Three caravans arrived on grassland at Delta Business Park on the afternoon of Sunday 1 November, settling in near the Audi dealership and the adjacent KFC. Motorists travelling along Great Western Way have been slowing down to look, which some traffic experts might call the first genuine traffic calming measure the road has ever had.

Swindon Borough Council and Wiltshire Police have been informed, and it is understood the group is expected to move on by the end of the week. Councils cannot force an immediate departure from land they do not own, and before any eviction proceedings begin there is a legal duty to carry out welfare checks, which in this case appear to be going rather better than Audi's showroom footfall.

A spokesperson for nobody in particular noted that this is believed to be the first time in Delta Business Park's history that anything parked there has depreciated less overnight than the cars for sale forty feet away.

Brenda Pask, 72, of Old Town, who has lived there since before it was old, said she'd caravanned at Weston-super-Mare every August with Ron for thirty years and never once needed to be assessed for welfare by a man from the council, only occasionally by a seagull. 'I'm not one to gossip, but the Pritchards at number six took their caravan to Tenby last year and came back saying it was overpriced, so God knows what they'd make of parking it next to an Audi showroom. At least our pitch had a toilet block and not a man trying to sell you finance on a Q3.'

Gary Tench, Area Manager at Tench Paper Solutions in Westlea, said he had driven past twice specifically to see it, and felt there was a real opportunity here for what he called a 'cross-sector brand moment', possibly involving a banner, before admitting he did not know who he would ask about the banner or what it would say. He added that his band, The Toner Cartridges, had once rehearsed in a caravan belonging to his uncle, and that the acoustics, while poor, were 'surprisingly intimate.'

By midweek, the KFC had reportedly seen a modest uplift in trade, the caravans had seen a modest uplift in disapproving glances, and the Audi showroom, for the first time in its history, had something parked outside it that nobody was looking at with pure longing.