A GROUP of travellers have moved onto a former overspill car park near a football stadium angering residents and a local councillor.

They want town hall officials and police to step up efforts to evict the six caravans and mobile home from the land between Alan Shearer Way and Bolton Road in Ewood.

Residents have accused the travellers, believed to have moved from Pleasington playing fields on Thursday, of throwing eggs and sticks at houses and defecating in public.

Peoplewho live on Bolton Road near Blackburn Rovers’ Ewood Park stadium and say the travellers’ presence has confined an elderly neighbour to her home.

They said they had complained to Blackburn with Darwen Council, which owns the land, and the police since the caravans arrived but nothing had been done.

One of the residents said: “They are making a real nuisance of themselves and have been throwing sticks and eggs at houses and you can see them doing their business in the open.

“There is human faeces on the ground.

“An elderly neighbour who lives nearby is now frightened to leave her house.”

Another resident said: “We don’t have a problem with the travellers on the official site in Ewood but this group are different: a real nuisance. We want them moved quickly.”

Ewood councillor Maureen Bateson said: “They have already caused damage getting on the land. Residents are very upset and want them moving.”

A council spokeswoman said a ‘Notice to Leave’ had been issued, to be enforced by a court order on Wednesday if they stayed. She confirmed they were the travellers who left Pleasington after the police served a notice to evict them.

Cllr Bateson wants a similar order placed on the group in Ewood as soon as possible.

A police spokesman said: “We are aware of their presence. A Section 61 Order to evict is one of the powers available.”