TRAVELLERS who have been pitched up in an Eastwood park for four days have been told they must leave inside the next 24 hours or face prosecution.

Four caravans, two vans and a car arrived in Oakwood Park, off Stephenson Road, on Thursday night and have refused to leave since despite being asked to leave by Southend Council.

Southend Council issued an initial notice informing travellers that they were trespassing and conducted a welfare check on Friday but are now taking harsher action and have ordered the site to disperse by the end of today or be summoned to magistrates court.

Southend Lib Dem leader and Eastwood Park ward councillor, Paul Collins, believes this will send the message needed to get the camp to move on from the area.

He said: “They were notified they were trespassing, and we have gone through court to serve them an eviction notice.

“People are upset about the situation and the park is large and does have a lot of roads around it, around the eastern and northern sides, and people are concerned that they shouldn’t be there, they are driving cars across the park.

“They are being quite subdued with the noise, but they are leaving a mess around the site.”

Mr Collins added he is confident that the gate to the park was not left unlocked despite the travellers having no issue accessing the park.

He said: “It is a difficult thing to manage the parks, and I don’t think a CCTV camera would help, I don’t think it would help much.

“It was clear what happened, and we were aware in minutes and hours that they were in the park.”

Mr Collins added that, while there have been suggestions that stronger security is needed at the park, “blocking entrances would not be feasible.”

He added: “It is not practical for the park, we need teams and tractors in frequently, we need the ability to get into the park.

“To block entrances would not be feasible but we have locks in place.”