Travellers who pitched up outside a village hall are still there a week later.

Now council enforcement officers will be issuing them a summons to appear before Maidstone magistrates if they don’t leave tomorrow (Wednesday).

Caravans arrived in the car park of Larkfield Village Hall in New Hythe Lane overnight last Wednesday.

A spokesman for Tonbridge and Malling council said: “We are aware and officers have visited this morning to check on the situation. We are now in the process of issuing a legal notice requiring them to leave the site.”

A woman, who did not wish to be named, said two caravans arrived on Wednesday night.

Under the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, police in England and Wales were given new powers to address harms caused by such unauthorised encampments and new guidance was published.

It comes amid a national shortage of gypsy and traveller sites with no plots currently available in Kent.