A group of travellers who were served an eviction notice after parking illegally on Swale Way, Sittingbourne, have moved...half a mile down the road.

It is the seventh time they have relocated to another site in the town in less than two months.

They first arrived on Swale Way on September 13, and Kent County Council (KCC) issued the notice last Thursday to force them to leave.

The group set up their latest encampment at the Eurolink Industrial Estate despite Swale Council previously handing them an injunction to prevent them pitching up on any land owned by the local authority again.

However, because the land they are now on is privately-owned KCC will not take any steps to remove them.

Sites they have been moved off before include another area on Swale Way; land off Emerald Crescent; Sonora Fields, close to the Jenny Wren pub; the recreation ground in Rectory Road, Sittingbourne; and Hugh Price Close, Murston.

Swale council earlier said the clean-up costs and repairs had amounted to more than £1,000.

Swale West UKIP councillor Mike Baldock said the removal of traveller camps in the 1990s has led to the current situation where there are not enough sites where police can move them to.

He said: “Where councils don’t have gypsy parks available, it makes it harder for councils to move them on.

“If there’s a site available, police have the automatic power to move them out.

“The blight on people’s lives is immense with people scared to use foot-paths near traveller sites.

“It’s important that councils stop burying their heads in the sand and sort out this problem.”

The owner of the site where the gypsies are currently camped did not wish to comment.