COUNCIL staff spent seven hours cleaning up a village green following the departure of a traveller encampment.

The travellers left Notley Green in Great Notley last Friday morning, shortly before Braintree Council would have been able to send in bailiffs after securing a court order the previous day.

A council spokesman said officers spent seven hours clearing the land of rubbish afterwards, at a cost of £300.

The authority has also installed concrete blocks, which cost £250 a week to hire and £6,000 to transport, as well as a new fence along Highclere Road for £1,300

Council leader Graham Butland: “On Monday Great Notley Parish Council met and agreed to ask Braintree Council to make permanent fencing along Great Notley Green, White Court Wood and Daphne Close, where there are currently the concrete blocks.

“The parish council has offered to meet a significant portion of the costs of that from their funds.

“This does not set a precedent for other parts of the district.

“I went to see this group of travellers three or four times before it was cleared up and there was some mess around but they had used our black bag system and piled it up. We were very lucky with this group.”

An inflatable fun day organised by Notley Green Primary School set to take place last Friday was cancelled as organisers were unable to access the field.

A spokesman for the Friends of Notley Green Primary School said: “We plan to re-book this event for a full day during the summer holidays and will advertise this date as soon as one has been booked. As a committee we tried everything we could to avoid this and we would like to apologise for any disappointment.”

Braintree MP James Cleverly met Essex Police Chief Constable Stephen Kavanagh last Tuesday after receiving correspondence from angry residents in the wake of the travellers’ arrival on June 10.

He said: “I had a good meeting with the chief constable, I passed on the concerns of the people in Great Notley whom I had spoken with.We discussed the policing of travellers in general and last week’s events in particular, and agreed that policing needs to be robust and that local people need to feel secure in their homes.

“I will also be meeting with the police and crime commissioner and leader of the council about what we can do together to prevent a situation like this occurring again.”