A GROUP of travellers caused chaos after descending on Blackburn town centre.

Council officials had to step in to move vehicles from several locations this morning after they were parked illegally in streets.

The group went to two pubs, and then a 90-strong group was ejected from a third on police orders after concerns about their rowdy behaviour.

Yesterday four vehicles were moved on from High Street, outside the Lancashire Telegraph head office.

They then took up residence in Darwen Street, with eight vehicles including vans and camper vans making up the convoy.

Two of the vehicles were ticketed in High Street, where many of the group had spent the night, and street cleaners collected three bin bags full of rubbish that had been left.

The mixture of vans and motorhomes included one with a flat battery, which had to be jump-started by rolling it backwards down High Street, and another with a flat tyre.

Last night police said the group had been moved on from the Postal Order and Last Orders pubs in Darwen Street, before they moved on to the Adelphi at 4pm.

Adelphi manager, Lynn Balshaw, said: “The police were always watching them and they did behave but having 90 members of the travelling community in the pub was very intimidating.

“The police moved everyone out at 8pm. My regulars had left long before that.

“They said they had come up for a funeral and many of them were from London.”

One of the group said: “We’re not doing anything wrong. We just needed somewhere to stop overnight.”

There are several official travellers’ sites in East Lancashire.

The nearest is in the Ewood area of Blackburn.