Having suffered an invasion by around 40 caravans on July 13, we succeeded, with some fine work by the police, in evicting them by July 17.

They had camped illegally on the football pitch at the Greenfield Community Centre in the Meadowhead ward of Blackburn, and, in just 96 hours, they changed the pitch from being a, well-cared-for patch of land into a battlefield.

Residents who live close by had to suffer travellers urinating openly and emptying caravan toilets on the edge of the field.

They camp wherever they wish because they know from experience that the worst that will happen to them is to be moved on whereas we, the taxpayers, will pay for everything.

The first cost to us was for a giant skip which they asked for and, when they had finally gone, the council began a clean-up, a repair of the barriers which should keep such people out, and the rolling, re-seeding, and levelling of the pitch.

The work is expected to cost thousands.

Councillor Konrad Tapp and I were tied up with the problem from Wednesday to Sunday and were grateful in the end that we did not suffer them for six weeks as Hyndburn had.

We need a new and serious approach to dealing with illegal encampments.

Can we bring in a by-law to the effect that keeping a caravan on council land incurs a penalty of £100 per night?

Failure to pay would mean being clamped or having a vehicle seized.

Brian Gordon, Conservative Councillor, Meadowhead Ward