ASSISTING land owners and clearing up sites in Brentwood after travellers camped on them has cost the taxpayer almost £2,500 so far this summer.

Brentwood Council has dealt with five separate traveller sites around the borough since the beginning of June.

When a group camped on private land in Days Lane, the cost of officer time was £350, matching the cost of when the council dealt with a group in Chelmsford Lane.

Directions to leave were issued to a group in Hutton Recreation Ground but, although the site was vacated before the matter was taken to court, it still cost £850 in officer time, legal costs and clearing up litter.

Officer time was also spent on groups at the Brentwood Centre at the cost of £250 and private land in Nags Head Road and Dagwood Lane, ataprice of £650 for both sites.

Councillor Keith Parker, chairman of Economic Development said: “We had a very ‘hard touch’ with travellers and moving them on, suggesting travellers shouldn’t come to Brentwood.

"But there was a softer touch last year and this makes it more difficult to establish that hard touch again.”