RESIDENTS have vented their fury after a band of travellers pitched up in an Ingatestone park on Friday.

About four caravans and white vans settled in the Seymour Field park, off Roman Road, at around noon.

The enclave had grown to six caravans on Tuesday, despite council officers asking them to leave.

Estelle Pierce, 63, from High Street, Ingatestone, described the new settlement as a “cheek”, and said they are stopping children from playing sports on the field.

She added: “I’m not happy because they ruined the Bank Holiday for the local children who had plans over the weekend. They couldn’t play football on the field and I can’t walk my dog there.

“It’s the sheer cheek of them to just turn up, especially when there are legal spaces in Mountnessing for them, so I don’t understand why they had to park up on our field.

“I think they are here for a jolly Bank Holiday weekend so they will hopefully go soon.

“It also makes me angry because they leave all their rubbish behind and even human waste sometimes.

“It also looks like there is a heavily pregnant woman, which is a concern because there are no facilities for them.”

Ingatestone councillor Noelle Hones joined council officers in visiting the site on Friday.

She said: “They said they’d move on but they didn’t.

“It’s council land and it’s not suitable for travellers.”

A Brentwood Council spokesman said: “We are taking the appropriate action to gain repossession.

“Officers visited the site on Friday and they issued a direction to leave.

“They visited the site again on Tuesday morning and the unauthorised incursion was still present. Officers are applying for a court order.”