TRAVELLERS have been threatened with legal action if they fail to leave private land in Colchester.

Twelve caravans set up near Salary Brook nature reserve, on Essex University land.

Five remain, and the families, there with children and dogs, have pledged to be gone by the weekend.

But university bosses say they will take action if they prolong their stay.

Their presence has sparked renewed calls for the replacement of what was the town’s official travellers’ site at the nearby Hythe.

Travellers recently left behind five tonnes of rubbish when they pitched up on land near the Weston Homes Community Stadium, which cost the council £700 to clear up.

Julie Young, county councillor for Wivenhoe St Andrew’s ward, said: “A proper travellers’ site needs to be developed as soon as possible.

“Salary Brook is a local nature reserve and it is not appropriate for travellers to be there.”

A female traveller, who declined to give her name, said her group owned land in Surrey but liked to “keep up the old traditions” by going on the road each summer.

She said: “I can promise we can be gone by the weekend because all the kids have to be back in school.

“If there was a travellers’ site in Colchester, or even just a transit site, you could pull on for a few days. We would certainly have used it.

Essex University spokeswoman Chris Garrington said the caravans had moved in late last month.

She added: “After a polite request was made to move, the matter was placed in the hands of solicitors, who are in the process of co-ordinating legal removal.

“The university has been advised a county court hearing will take place on September 8.”

University security guards are keeping watch at the entrance to the land, off Boundary Road, where the travellers are staying, to prevent others joining them.

Colchester has been without a permanent travellers’ site for years, since the Hythe venue was closed as part of regeneration plans.

A consultation costing tens of thousands of pounds resulted in a plot of land off Severalls Lane getting planning permission in 2007.

However, the council has been locked in a legal wrangle with farmer Stuart St Clair Pearce over access.