TRAVELLERS who set up camp near a County Durham village left a “disgraceful”

mess when they left at the weekend.

Rubbish, overturned portable toilets and gas canisters could be seen strewn across the stretch of land in Close House, near Bishop Auckland, yesterday.

About 100 travellers, with accompanying horse boxes, caravans and vehicles, started moving in six weeks earlier, ahead of the Appleby Horse Fair last month.

Councillor Dorothy Burn is furious that Durham County Council did not intervene earlier to move the group along, and said the taxpayer will now foot the clean-up bill.

“It is just not good enough and it is getting worse,” she said. “There is nothing to stop them from being clean and tidy.

“I know sometimes you have to make allowances for these people, but at the same time they have to be considerate and think about the people who live in the villages.”

The site was formerly a cricket pitch, but the village club could not afford the rent and the land fell to local authority ownership.

Coun Burn, of Close House, says the community also reported problems with noise and late-night drinking.

“People couldn’t get to sleep,”

she said.

“The Police Community Support Officers did have a word with them, but they just need to consider people living round and about.

“The village can’t cope with this anymore. Why should we have to put up with this? Apparently there is a shortage of sites in County Durham, but I don’t believe that for a minute.”

Scott McInally, of the council’s traveller liaison service, said action was taken and workers are now cleaning up.

He said: “There have been a number of different groups of travellers on this site and throughout the encampment the county council has followed Government guidance.

“We made regular visits to maintain the appearance of the site and also to engage with the travellers to ensure that they moved on as agreed – and that is what we have achieved.

“We have arranged for portable toilets to be removed a day earlier than planned and we are now in the process of securing the area which will be tidied up as quickly as possible.”