TWO traveller families who set up camp in the heart of Constable Country have been given three months to move, or face prosecution.

Patrick Logan and Michael Doran’s families moved to Dedham with twomobile homes and three static caravans at the end of October.

Neighbours were furious when they heard Colchester Council might be powerless to act until after a vote on a planning application the Irish traveller families had submitted.

However, after getting legal advice about long-standing enforcement notices relating to the site, off Bargate Lane, the council has decided it doesn’t need to wait to reject the application.

As a result, it has ordered both families off the site by March.

Father-of-two Mr Doran, 26, said he was baffled at this latest development.

He explained: “They just sent us a letter, saying they want us off. I was flabbergasted, to be honest. I’ve never heard of any enforcement notice being on here.

“It must have been before Patrick’s father owned the land, and he has owned it since about 1994. I know there was another bloke living here for many years with his family. It must be to do with him.

“At the end of the day, if the council provides us with somewhere to go, wewill go there, but there is nowhere else for us to go.”

Mr Doran lives on the site with wife, Charlene, and daughters Charlene, five, and Alice, three. His younger daughter is autistic and Mr Doran said it was important for her to be settled, so she could get the support she needed.

Mr Logan, 18, and his 17-yearold wife Priscilla, submitted a restropective planning application for the families to live at the site when they moved on at the end of October.

They have since put up 6ft-tall gates at the site’s entrance and CCTV cameras.

A council spokesman said: “The land is being unlawfully occupied for residential purposes and there are five planning enforcement notices relating to this site, dating back to the early Nineties.

“Consequently the retrospective planning application submitted with a view to regularising that situation was declined to be determined .

“Because of the existing enforcement notices, we have issued a human rights questionnaire to the occupiers and informed them they will have three months to move and comply with the existing enforcement notices or we will initiate proceedings against them.

Conservation group the Dedham Vale Society also wants the caravans moved, describing the site, which is in an officially- recognised Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, as “totally inappropriate”.

Dedham Parish Council has written to neighbours, urging them to object to the application.

As a result, almost 100 objections have been received.