A GROUP of Hampshire residents have been left to pick up a £1,000 clean-up bill after travellers left their park strewn with rubbish.

The travellers moved on from Mountbatten Park, off Ringwood Drive, North Baddesley after village bosses served a notice requiring them to leave.

But residents were dismayed to find the temporary tenants had left behind a trail of litter, refuse and broken glass.

Parish council chairman Alan Dowden said: "This is just not on. It's going to cost us - and therefore the local taxpayers - at least £650 to clear the land and then we have to pay for skips on top of that.

"The travellers were only there for ten days but they've been here before and they just leave the place in an awful state."

He said the parish council was now looking at replacing fences round the park and building up stronger resistance to travelling families - but the costs would mount up, he warned.

The news comes just days after the village, north of Southampton, was overrun by police in riot gear during the funeral of Romany woman May Cooper.

May's family say the police presence was an insult to the Romany population and hit out at prejudices in Hampshire.