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The community arrived on Dracaena Playing Fields in Falmouth, Cornwall, on Tuesday night with several vehicles and caravans. The local authority has served a notice and sent bailiffs but the group remain on the site and “refuse to go”.

Mark Williams, Falmouth Town Council clerk, told Cornwall Live: “They’re still refusing to go. We served notice to leave this week and our bailiffs are attending today to encourage them to do so.

“Travellers do visit Falmouth but they don’t normally park in the middle of a football pitch.

“The public need access to these places so we will be looking at how we prevent this sort of unauthorised access going ahead.”

It comes after another group of travellers set up an unauthorised camp on a recreation ground in Penzance in the west of the county.

But they left today after the Tory council’s intervention.

Tim Dwelly, Cornwall councillor for Penzance East, said: “I’m delighted that the travellers have now left the Rec, in fact earlier than they said they would. Thanks should go to Melville Durrant who runs the Trust at the ground and responded quickly. Also to Cornwall Council officers who got the court order served and spoke to the travellers.

“I really don’t understand why they would want to go to sites knowing they can only stay for a few days at most, as there are approved sites available. But this is all for the best for everyone and the Rec is back to normal, undamaged.”

The Penzance recreation ground cost the council £1.75m to construct.

The authority also created a Gypsy and Traveller transit site, which is just off the A38 near Liskeard, but it was occupied by just a single group of three people last month.

Romany Gypsies and Irish Travellers are defined as minority ethnic groups under the Equalities Act 2010. As a result, any use of powers must be proportionate to the degree of crime and disorder, public safety and disruption to the community and must also take into consideration the welfare, health and educational needs of the travellers, who are a protected group under the act.

A Cornwall Council spokesperson said last month: “Local councils have a public sector equality duty. This means it can take a local authority longer to remove an unauthorised encampment than it does for a private landowner but, where appropriate, the council uses its legal powers to move encampments on.

“We would encourage residents to report any incidents of anti-social behaviour to the police.”

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