A RESIDENT who suffered a sleepless night due to noise from a New Age travellers camp has criticised the police and borough council for failing to tackle the problem.

Mrs Hazel Vanbergen, who lives 200 yards from the camp which was on private land off Crown Lane at Nately Scures, said an all-night party at the site took place for 12 hours from 10pm last Saturday.

"There was heavy metal music with a bass that reverberated - this was the most tedious part of it," she said. "With earplugs and a pillow over my head, I could still hear it.

"Residents of Nately Scures thought the noise was excessive, and what was problematic was that the council will not do anything about this."

Mrs Vanbergen, who served on the county council for 12 years, said travellers had occupied the site for several months, and this was the third incident involving loud music since July.

She said that when she rang the police at 5am on Sunday, she was told to call the council, which she did, leaving a message on an answerphone there.

However, she said that she had no response from the council until Tuesday, when she said she was told nothing could be done.

Land owned by Lord Malmesbury was left strewn with litter by another group of travellers last month, and Mrs Vanbergen said: "Groups of similar persons have been trashing the place and it seems there is no real remedy other than people barricading their land and going to court."

Liz Walsh, spokeswoman for Hampshire Police, said they had little power to deal with complaints about noise, and added it was normal policy to refer complainants to the council.

Basingstoke council spokeswoman Isabella Jamieson said: "Mrs Vanbergen's message was left on the answerphone in the chief executive's office at 5.09am on October 12. As the message was left on a departmental extension number, it wasn't picked up until the next day.

"The council can only respond if such an event was causing widespread public nuisance. As only one call was made to the police, the matter was not forwarded through to our duty officer."

After the landlord obtained a possession order from Basingstoke County Court, the travellers moved on from the site on Tuesday.