WELFARE officers are due to visit a group of travellers who have set up camp on Southampton Common.

As reported in later editions of yesterday's Daily Echo, more than a dozen vehicles drove on to the conservation site off Highfield Lane overnight on Thursday.

The police and Southampton City Council, who own the site, were alerted by worried residents on Friday morning and immediately began proceedings to evict them.

A spokesman for the council said that their legal department was aware of the situation and that they would be taking the appropriate action to evict them.

"Valuers have visited the site and a welfare check will be done on Monday by social cohesion staff. We are liaising with officers at Southampton Central police station and talking to residents who have concerns," she said.

Acting Insp Justin Browne said that contact had been made with the group and that a joint approach was being adopted to deal with the incursion.

"We have been down to the site and we are liaising with the council who are taking the lead role in proceedings as landowners.

"Of course there is concern about them being there but as far as we can tell at the moment there is no indication the group are being disrespectful to the common land.

"Although the council are taking the legal action to remove them, we can respond if we feel that the situation has escalated under section 61 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act, but it is a question of monitoring the situation for now."

It is thought the group arrived after being moved on from Belgrave Industrial Estate in Portswood. Business owners there had been complaining to the council about the encampment.

Police issued the travellers with an eviction notice on Thursday but they left before it expired and found their way on to the Common.

The Common is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and conservationists and locals want the group removed.

Highfield Residents' Association member Ann Wardle said: "We have been trying to find out what is being done to get them off the land. It is highly protected and action does need to be taken."