THREE tonnes of rubbish was dumped by Travellers in an Ellesmere Port park.

Two lorries were needed to remove hundreds of bags of junk and litter, as well as abandoned cookers and human waste, from Whitby Park.

Their 19 caravans had been on the public open space, which is used by children, dog-walkers and residents, since Monday, September 10.

The group finally left on Thursday morning, after being served with a notice for trespass, leaving a lot of distressed residents in their wake.

Borough council chiefs, who were left with the job of cleaning-up after them, have already spent £2,400 to secure the park, and are taking further action.

Whitby resident Terry Jones said: ‘This is the fourth time Travellers have been trespassing on the park this year.

‘If the council wants to set up a fixed site for them, they should see this mess left here.

‘Residents have to take our rubbish to the tip and we’d get fined if we left it anywhere. But not the Travellers. What is this clean-up costing us local people?’

He said the Travellers left behind ‘100 to 200 plastic sacks’ of rubbish, old cookers, wooden pallets; and had also been seen going to the toilet on the grass and driving their vehicles around the park at 2am, with children inside.

Mr Jones, 45, added: ‘Everyone has got a right to live somewhere, but the Travellers going on public land and parks, that’s not the way to do it.

‘This is just not good for Ellesmere Port, the businesses and residents who live here.’

Although an exact figure could not be put on the council’s clean-up operation, a borough spokesman said it would be ‘several hundred pounds’.

Mary Lavery, borough parks development officer, said: ‘We believe nearly three tonnes of rubbish has been removed from the site of the encampment in the park.’

She added: ‘We are working hard to make Whitby Park less accessible to vehicles. The park has open boundaries on Park Drive and Thamesdale so it is difficult to prevent access here but seven more bollards will be installed.

‘We’ve spent £2,400 in the last few months on prevention measures.’