THIS is the scene left at Lakeside Country Park by travellers who set up an illegal camp for five days.

Piles of branches, foliage and tree trunks plus plastics, old carpets, domestic refuse, waste food, broken electrical equipment and rubble were left by the group who moved on, with the help of council staff, on Wednesday afternoon.

The remains of a burned-out caravan was also left behind while grass in the country park was left scarred by vehicle track marks after the travellers took down a fence to pitch seven caravans close to the popular Lakeside Railway line.

Today, a council spokesman said that the legacy of the travellers' five-day stay was estimated at about ten skipfulls of rubbish - although most of it was green waste - and the cost to council tax payers of cleaning up was still being assessed.

He added: "This spells out a timely message to householders not to hire people who call at their doorsteps offering to do work.

"With travellers passing through our area in the next few months, this warning has come nice and early.

"Householders who do not hire bona fide workers should be aware that they will probably not get a very good job done, will be charged a lot of money and that piles of rubbish will be illegally dumped around the area."

Travellers started moving on to the site near South Street late on Friday night, with more arriving Saturday morning.

At one stage more than a dozen caravans were spread across land near the council's South Street allotment site and on country park land.

The caravan dwellers decided to quit the site on Wednesday, but needed the help of country park rangers using a Land Rover and winch after some of their vehicles became stuck.

Cllr Peter Luffman said he was pleased that the travellers had gone and praised both Hampshire County Council's gypsy liaison office and borough council officials for getting a swift resolution to the problem.

But he added: "I am very disappointed with the amount of mess that has been left, considering the short time they were there. However, there could have been considerably more if they had not gone so quickly."